1 Thus the Loʀᴅ said to me, “Go and AJer 13:11buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought the waistband in accordance with the AIs 20:2; Ezek 2:8word of the Loʀᴅ and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the Loʀᴅ came to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the waistband that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to 1Or Parah, cf Josh 18:23; so through v 7the AJer 51:63Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, AEx 39:42, 43; 40:16as the Loʀᴅ had commanded me. 6 After many days the Loʀᴅ said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it was totally worthless.

8 Then the word of the Loʀᴅ came to me, saying, 9 “Thus says the Loʀᴅ, ‘Just so will I destroy the ALev 26:19; Is 2:10-17; 23:9; Jer 13:15-17; Zeph 3:11pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10  ‘This wicked people, who ANum 14:11; 2 Chr 36:15, 16; Jer 11:10refuse to listen to My words, who BJer 9:14; 11:8; 16:12walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless. 11  ‘For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah AEx 19:5, 6; Deut 32:10, 11cling to Me,’ declares the Loʀᴅ, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for 1Lit a nameBJer 32:20renown, for CIs 43:21; Jer 33:9praise and for glory; but they DPs 81:11; Jer 7:13, 24, 26did not listen.’

12 “Therefore you are to speak this word to them, ‘Thus says the Loʀᴅ, the God of Israel, “Every jug is to be filled with wine.” ’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ 13 then say to them, ‘Thus says the Loʀᴅ, “Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with APs 60:3; 75:8; Is 51:17; 63:6; Jer 25:27; 51:7, 57drunkenness! 14  “I will AIs 9:20, 21; Jer 19:9-11dash them against each other, both the BJer 6:21; Ezek 5:10fathers and the sons together,” declares the Loʀᴅ. “I will CDeut 29:20; Is 27:11; Jer 16:5; 21:7not show pity nor be sorry nor have compassion so as not to destroy them.” ’ ”