ULT JER Chapter 13

◄ JER 13 ► ║ ═ ©

13 Thus says Yahweh to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth for yourself and put it around your loins, but do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of Yahweh, and I put it around my loins. 3 And the word of Yahweh was to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the loincloth that you bought, that is around your loins, and arise, go to Perath[fn] and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by Perath, just as Yahweh had commanded me. 6 And it happened from the end of many days, that Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go to Perath, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to Perath [fn] and dug and I took the loincloth from the place that I had hidden it, and behold, the loincloth was ruined, it was not good for anything.

8 And the word of Yahweh was to me, saying, 9 “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Thus I will ruin the majesty of Judah and the great majesty of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, the ones who refuse to listen to my words, the ones walking in the stubbornness of their heart, and they have walked after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them—let him be like this loincloth that is not good for anything. 11 For as a loincloth clings to the loins of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me”—the declaration of Yahweh—“to be for me my people, and be for name, and be for praise, and be for glory. But they would not listen.

12 Therefore you shall speak this word to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Every jar shall be filled with wine.” ’ And they will say to you, ‘Knowing do we not know that every jar will be filled with wine?’ 13 Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Behold, I am the one filling with drunkenness all of the ones inhabiting this land, and the kings, the ones sitting on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14 And I will smash a man against his brother, and the fathers and the sons together”—the declaration of Yahweh—“I will not pity and I will not spare and I will not have compassion so as not to destroy them.” ’ ”

15 Listen and give ear; do not be proud, for Yahweh has spoken.

16 Give glory to Yahweh your God before he brings darkness,

and before he causes your feet to stumble on the mountains at twilight,

and you wait for light, but he turns it to deep darkness, he turns it to gloom.

17 But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret places because of your pride;

and weeping she will weep and my eyes will flow with tears, because Yahweh’s flock has been taken captive.

18 “Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Make low, sit,

for has come down from at your heads the crown of your glory.

19 The cities of the Negev are shut up, and there is not one opening. All of Judah has been exiled, she has been wholly exiled.’ ”

20 Lift up your eyes and see the ones coming from the north.

Where is the flock given to you, your flock of beauty?

21 What will you say when he appoints over you and you, yourself, have taught them, friends over you, to be head?

Will not labor pains seize you like a woman in labor?

22 And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?”

For the multitude of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered and your heels been exposed.

23 Can the Cushite change his skin, or the leopard its spots?

Then also you yourself, are able to do good, ones accustomed to do evil.

24 Therefore I will scatter them like stubble passing away by the wind of the wilderness.

25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me”—the declaration of Yahweh—

“because you have forgotten me and trusted in a lie.

26 So I myself shall strip off your skirts over your face, that your shame may be visible.

27 Your adulteries and your neighings,

the lewdness of your harlotry, on the hills in the fields.

I have seen your abominations.

Woe to you, Jerusalem! How long will you not be clean?”

Some translate Perath as the Euphrates.

Some versions translate Perath as the Euphrates.