The Bible

27 verses

Jeremiah Chapter 13

¹Thus says ForeverOne to me, Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don't put it in water.

²So I bought a belt according to the word of ForeverOne, and put it on my waist.

³The word of ForeverOne came to me the second time, saying, ⁴Take the belt 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.

⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as ForeverOne commanded me.

⁶After many days ForeverOne said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

⁸Then the word of ForeverOne came to me, saying, ⁹Thus says ForeverOne, In this way I will mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

¹¹For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says ForeverOne; that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

¹²Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says ForeverOne, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall tell you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

¹³Then you shall tell them, Thus says ForeverOne, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

¹⁴I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says ForeverOne: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.

¹⁵Hear, and give ear; don't be proud; for ForeverOne has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to ForeverOne your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.

¹⁷But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because ForeverOne's flock is taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses have come down, even the crown of your glory.

¹⁹The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive.

²⁰Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

²¹What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

²²If you say in your heart, Why are these things come on me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says ForeverOne; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

²⁶Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame shall appear.

²⁷I 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 shall it yet be?