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1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen sash, put it around your waist, and do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought the sash according to the word of the LORD and put it around my waist.
3 The word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 “Take the sash you bought, which is around your waist. Get up and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a crevice in the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me. 6 After many days the LORD said to me, “Get up and go to the Euphrates and take from there the sash I commanded you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates, dug, and took the sash from the place where I had hidden it. Look, the sash was ruined; it was good for nothing.
8 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 This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve them and bow down to them, will be like this sash, good for nothing. 11 For just as a sash clings to a man’s waist, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, to be my people, my renown, my praise, and my glory. But they did not listen. 12 Tell them this word: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Every jar will be filled with wine.’ They will say to you, ‘Do we not know very well that every jar will be filled with wine?’
13 Then tell them: This is what the LORD says: I am filling all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14 I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons together, declares the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion to keep me from destroying them.”
15 Hear and pay attention;
do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken.
16 Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains.
You will look for light, but he will turn it to deep darkness and make it thick gloom.
17 But if you do not listen, my soul will weep in secret because of your pride.
My eyes will weep bitterly and run with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother, “Humble yourselves;
sit down, for your glorious crown has fallen from your heads.”
19 The cities of the Negev are shut, and there is no one to open them.
All Judah has been taken into exile, carried into exile completely.
20 Lift your eyes and see those coming from the north.
Where is the flock entrusted to you, your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say when he sets over you as rulers those you yourself cultivated as close friends?
Will pains not seize you like a woman in labor?
22 And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things happened to me?”—it is because of your great iniquity that your skirts have been lifted and your heels have suffered violence.
23 Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard its spots?
Then you too can do good, you who are accustomed to doing evil!
24 “I will scatter them like stubble driven by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot, the portion I have measured out for you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehood.
26 I myself will lift your skirts over your face, so that your shame is seen.
27 Your adulteries, your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution—on the hills, in the field, I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
Will you not be clean?
How much longer?”