13 Thus said Jehovah unto me: Go and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins; but dip it not in water.

² And I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins.

³ And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying,

⁴ Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

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

⁶ And it came to pass at the end of many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence which I commanded thee to hide there.

⁷ And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and behold, the girdle was spoiled, it was good for nothing.

⁸ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

⁹ Thus saith Jehovah: After this manner will I spoil the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

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

¹¹ For as a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

¹² And thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every skin shall be filled with wine. And they will say unto thee, Do we not very well know that every skin shall be filled with wine?

¹³ And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings that sit 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 together, saith Jehovah; I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy so as not to destroy them.

¹⁵ Hear ye, and give ear, be not lifted up; for Jehovah hath spoken.

¹⁶ Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains of twilight; and ye shall look for light, but he will turn it into the shadow of death, and make [it] gross darkness.

¹⁷ And if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for [your] pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock is gone into captivity.

¹⁸ Say unto the king and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down low; for from your heads shall come down the crown of your magnificence.

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

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?

²¹ What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee, since thou thyself hast trained them to be princes in chief over thee? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

²² And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, [and] thy heels have suffered violence.

²³ Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴ And I will scatter them as stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵ This shall be thy lot, thy measured portion from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and confided in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore will I also turn thy skirts over thy face, and thy shame shall be seen.

²⁷ Thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy fornication, on the hills, in the fields,—thine abominations, have I seen. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? after how long a time yet?

14 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

² Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem goeth up.

³ And their nobles send their little ones for water: they come to the pits, they find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed, they are confounded, and have covered their heads.

⁴ Because the ground is chapt, for there hath been no rain on the earth, the ploughmen are ashamed, they cover their heads.

⁵ For the hind also calveth in the field, and forsaketh [its young], because there is no grass.

⁶ And the wild asses stand on the heights, they snuff up the wind like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.

⁷ Jehovah, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou act for thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many—we have sinned against thee.

⁸ Thou hope of Israel, its Saviour in the time of trouble, why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a traveller that turneth aside to stay a night?

⁹ Why wilt thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.

¹⁰ Thus saith Jehovah to this people: Even so have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet; and Jehovah hath no delight in them: now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

¹¹ And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer up burnt-offering and oblation, I will not accept them: for I will consume them by sword, and by famine, and by pestilence.

¹³ And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! Behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; for I will give you assured peace in this place.

¹⁴ And Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy falsehood in my name; I have not sent them, neither have I commanded them, nor spoken unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

¹⁵ Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, and who say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and by famine shall those prophets be consumed;

¹⁶ and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword; and there shall be none to bury them, them, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters; and I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷ And thou shalt say this word unto them: Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day, and not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

¹⁸ If I go forth into the field, behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, behold them that pine away with famine! For both prophet and priest shall go about into a land that they know not.

¹⁹ —Hast thou then utterly rejected Judah? Doth thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? Peace is looked for, and there is no good,—and a time of healing, and behold terror!

²⁰ Jehovah, we acknowledge our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee.

²¹ For thy name's sake, do not spurn [us], do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

²² Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou HE, Jehovah, our God? And we wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.

15 And Jehovah said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul [would] not [turn] toward this people. Send [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth.

² And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

³ For I will visit them with four kinds [of punishments], saith Jehovah: the sword to slay, and dogs to tear, and the fowl of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

⁴ And I will give them over to be driven hither and thither amongst all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ For who shall have pity upon thee, Jerusalem? and who shall bemoan thee? and who shall turn aside to ask after thy welfare?

⁶ Thou hast cast me off, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward; and I have stretched out my hand against thee, and will destroy thee: I am become weary of repenting.

⁷ And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave of children [and] destroy my people: they have not returned from their ways.

⁸ Their widows are increased to me more than the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them, against the mother of the young men, a spoiler at noonday; I have caused anguish and terror to fall upon her suddenly.

⁹ She that hath borne seven languisheth, she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it is yet day; she is put to shame and confounded. And the residue of them will I give up to the sword before their enemies, saith Jehovah.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land! I have not lent on usury, nor have they lent to me on usury; [yet] every one of them doth curse me.

¹¹ Jehovah said, Verily I will set thee free for [thy] good; verily I will cause the enemy to meet thee kindly in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹² Will iron break? iron from the north? and bronze?

¹³ Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders;

¹⁴ and I will make [them] to pass with thine enemies into a land that thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger; it shall burn upon you.

¹⁵ Jehovah, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; in thy long-suffering take me not away: know that for thy sake I bear reproach.

¹⁶ Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts.

¹⁷ I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor exulted: I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable? It refuseth to be healed. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a treacherous [spring], [as] waters that fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: If thou return, then will I bring thee again, thou shalt stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

²⁰ And I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah;

²¹ yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

16 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

² Thou shalt not take thee a wife, and thou shalt not have sons nor daughters in this place.

³ For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bear them, and concerning their fathers that beget them in this land:

⁴ They shall die of painful deaths; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carcases shall be food for the fowl of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ For thus saith Jehovah: Enter not into the house of wailing, neither go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith Jehovah, the loving-kindness and the tender mercies.

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried; and none shall lament for them, or cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

⁷ Nor shall they break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall they give them the cup of consolations to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

⁹ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt declare unto this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? and what is our iniquity? and what is our sin which we have committed against Jehovah our God?

¹¹ then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

¹² and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me:

¹³ and I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night: because I will shew you no favour.

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

¹⁵ but, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them. For I will bring them again into their land, which I gave unto their fathers.

¹⁶ Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them; and afterwards will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them, from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

¹⁷ For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not concealed from my face, neither is their iniquity hidden from before mine eyes.

¹⁸ But first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have profaned my land with the carcases of their detestable things, and with their abominations have they filled mine inheritance.

¹⁹ Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of distress, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and they shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited falsehood [and] vanity; and in these things there is no profit.

²⁰ Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no-gods?

²¹ Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.