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The Linen Loincloth

¹ This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.”² So I bought a loincloth as the LORD instructed me, and I put it around my waist.³ Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:⁴ “Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perath^(a) and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks.”⁵ So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me.⁶ Many days later the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to Perath and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.”⁷ So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined—of no use at all.⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to me:⁹ “This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.¹⁰ These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth—of no use at all.¹¹ For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory—but they did not listen.

The Wineskins

¹² Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Every wineskin shall be filled with wine.’ And when they reply, ‘Don’t we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’¹³ then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.¹⁴ I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

Captivity Threatened

²² And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” it is because of the magnitude of your iniquity. Your skirts have been stripped off, your body exposed.²³ Can the Ethiopian^(a) change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.²⁴ “I will scatter you like chaff, driven by the desert wind.²⁵ This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.²⁶ So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.²⁷ Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”