Jeremiah

13 Said Jehovah to me “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and place it on your waist, but do not put it in water”; 2 and I bought the loincloth in accordance with Jehovah’s word and placed it on my waist. 3 And Jehovah’s word came to me 4 “Take the loincloth you bought, that you have on your waist, and go off to the Euphrates and bury it there in a fissure of the crag”; 5 and I went and buried it at the Euphrates as Jehovah had ordered me to. 6 And after a long time Jehovah said to me “Go off to the Euphrates and get from there the loincloth I ordered you to bury there”; 7 and I went to the Euphrates and dug and got the loincloth from the place where I had buried it, and I found the loincloth was ruined, would not do for anything.

8 And Jehovah’s word came to me “Says Jehovah, 9* Like that I will ruin the great pride of Judah and of Jerusalem. 10 This wicked people who refuse to listen to my words, who go their own willful way and follow other gods, worshiping them and doing reverence to them, shall be like this loincloth that will not do for anything. 11* For as the loincloth is made fast to a man’s waist, so I made all the house of Judah fast to myself, quoth Jehovah, to be my own people and my fame and praise and glory, but they did not listen. 12* And you shall say to this people ‘Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Every cask will be filled with wine’; and they will say to you ‘Don’t we know every cask will be filled with wine?’ 13** and you shall say to them ‘Says Jehovah, Here I am filling all the inhabitants of this country, the kings that David has sitting on his throne and the priests and the prophets and Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness; 14 and I will smash them brother against brother and the fathers and the sons together, quoth Jehovah, I will not spare nor have mercy nor have feeling against making away with them.’”

15 Hear and take in, do not be haughty, because Jehovah has spoken. 16 Give glory to your God Jehovah before it has grown dark and before your feet have stumbled on the twilighty mountains and you have hoped for light and he has rendered it gloom and made darkling mist. 17* And if you do not hear, my soul will weep in concealment over its sorrow, and my eyes dissolve into tears because Jehovah’s flock is carried off. 18 Say to the king and the queen-mother “Sit low, because your crowns of magnificence are down off your heads.” 19 The cities of the South are shut up and there is nobody to open; Judah is all deported, deported bodily.

20 Raise your eyes and see those who are coming from the north; where is the flock you had given to you, the flock that was your glory? 21* What will you say when he sets over you—and you yourself had taught them against you—intimates as heads? Will not pains like those of a childbearing woman seize you? 22 And whereas you say to yourself “How comes it these things have befallen me?” it is for the multiplicity of your guilt your skirts are turned up and your heels treated roughly. 23 Will a Negro turn his skin, a leopard its spots? just as much can you do good things, wonted to doing bad. 24 And I will scatter them like straw passing on a wilderness wind. 25 This is your lot, your award for disobeying me, quoth Jehovah; for your having forgotten me and put your confidence in falsities, 26 I on my part will pull your skirts up over your face and your ignominy shall be seen. Your adulteries and indecencies, 27** the lewdness of your unchastity on hills in the open country—I have seen your disgusting ways. Woe to you, Jerusalem! you will not be clean in nobody knows how long!