Jeremiah
13 This is what Jehovah has said to me: “Go,* and you must get for yourself a linen belt and put it upon your hips, but you must not bring it into any water.” 2 So I got the belt in accord with the word of Jehovah and put it upon my hips. 3 And the word of Jehovah proceeded to occur to me a second time, saying: 4 “Take the belt that you got, that is upon your hips, and rise up, go to the Eu·phraʹtes,+ and hide it there in a cleft of the crag.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Eu·phraʹtes, just as Jehovah had commanded me.
6 But it came about at the end of many days that Jehovah proceeded to say to me: “Rise up, go to the Eu·phraʹtes and take from there the belt that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Accordingly I went to the Eu·phraʹtes and dug and took the belt from the place in which I had hid it, and, look! the belt had been ruined; it was not fit for anything.
8 Then the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 9 “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘In the same way I shall bring to ruin the pride of Judah+ and the abundant pride of Jerusalem. 10 This bad people who are refusing to obey my words,+ who are walking in the stubbornness of their heart+ and who keep walking after other gods* in order to serve them and to bow down to them,+ will also become just like this belt that is fit for nothing.’ 11 ‘For just as a belt clings to the hips of a man,* so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling even to me,’+ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘in order to become to me a people+ and a name+ and a praise and something beautiful; but they did not obey.’+
12 “And you must say to them this word, ‘This is what Jehovah the God* of Israel has said: “Every large jar is something that gets filled with wine.”’+ And they will certainly say to you, ‘Do we not positively know that every large jar is something that gets filled with wine?’ 13 And you must say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am filling all the inhabitants of this land and the kings that are sitting for David+ upon his throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness.+ 14 And I will dash them one against another, both the fathers and the sons, at the same time,”+ is the utterance of Jehovah. “I shall show no compassion, nor feel any sorrow, and I shall not have the mercy to keep from bringing them to ruin.”’+
15 “Hear, YOU people, and give ear. Do not be haughty,+ for Jehovah himself has spoken.+ 16 Give to Jehovah YOUR God* glory,+ before he causes darkness+ and before YOUR feet strike up against each other on the mountains at dusk.+ And YOU will certainly hope for the light,+ and he will actually make it deep shadow;+ he will turn [it] into thick gloom.+ 17 And if YOU will not hear it,+ in places of concealment my soul will weep because of pride and will positively shed tears; and my eye will run down with tears,+ because the drove+ of Jehovah will have been carried captive.
18 “Say to the king and to the lady,+ ‘Seat yourselves in a lower place,+ for down from YOUR heads* YOUR crown of beauty will certainly come.’+ 19 The cities of the south* themselves have been shut up, so that there is no one opening [them]. Judah in its entirety has been taken into exile. It has been taken into exile completely.+
20 “Raise your* eyes* and see those who are coming from the north.+ Where is the drove that one gave to you,* your beautiful flock?+ 21 What will you say when one* turns his attention upon you,+ when you yourself have taught them as confidential friends right alongside you at the start?+ Will not birth pangs themselves seize hold of you, like those of a wife* giving birth?+ 22 And when you will say in your heart,+ ‘Why is it that these things have befallen me?’+ because of the abundance of your error your skirts have been taken off as a cover;+ your heels have been treated violently.
23 “Can a Cushʹite*+ change his skin? or a leopard its spots?+ YOU yourselves would also be able to do good, who are persons taught to do bad.+ 24 So I shall scatter them+ like stubble that is passing along in the wind from the wilderness.+ 25 This is your* lot, your measured portion from me,”+ is the utterance of Jehovah, “because you have forgotten me+ and you keep putting your trust in falsehood.+ 26 And I myself also will lift up your skirts over your face, and your dishonor will certainly be seen,+ 27 your acts of adultery+ and your neighings,+ your loose conduct in prostitution. Upon the hills, in the field, I have seen your disgusting things.+ Woe to you, O Jerusalem! You cannot be clean+—after how much longer?”+