A Linen Undergarment

Jeremiah 13

YHWH said to me, “You are to go and buy yourself a linen undergarment, and put it on your waist, but don’t put it in water.”

So I bought a undergarment according to the word of YHWH, and put it on my waist.

The word of YHWH came to me the second time, saying, “Take the undergarment that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as YHWH commanded me.

After many days, YHWH said to me, “Get up and go to the Euphrates, and take the undergarment from there, which I commanded you to hide there.”

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it, but the undergarment was ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

Then the word of YHWH came to me, saying, “YHWH says, ‘In this way I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will even be as this undergarment, which is profitable for nothing. For just as an undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says YHWH, ‘so that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory, but they would not hear.’

Wineskins

“Therefore tell them this word: ‘YHWH, the God of Israel says, “Every container should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with wine?’ Then tell them, ‘YHWH says, “Look, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. I will smash them one against another, the parents and the children alike,” says YHWH: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, to keep me from destroying them.”’”

Threat of Exile

Y’all must listen, turn an ear, and not be proud, for YHWH has spoken. Y’all are to give glory to YHWH y’all’s God, before ʜᴇ brings darkness, and before y’all’s feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while y’all look for light, ʜᴇ turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness. But if y’all won’t listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep-and-weep, and overflow with tears, because YHWH’s flock has been taken captive. You are to say to the king and to the queen mother, “Y’all must take a humble seat. for y’all’s crowns of majestic beauty have come down from your* heads. The cities of the South are shut up, and there is no one to open them. Judah is carried away captive: all of them. They are completely taken into exile. Lift up y’all’s eyes, and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock? What will you say when ʜᴇ appoints friends you have trained as leaders over you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in labor? If you say in your heart, “Why have these things come on me?” Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity, and your heels suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? If so, then y’all might be able to do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

 

“Therefore I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” says YHWH, “because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.” Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame will appear. I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?”