Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

The Linen Loincloth

Thus said the L ord to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.” ²So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the L ord, and put it on my loins. ³And the word of the L ord came to me a second time, saying, ⁴“Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” ⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the L ord commanded me. ⁶And after many days the L ord said to me, “Go now to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.

⁸ Then the word of the L ord came to me: ⁹Thus says the L ord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. ¹¹For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the L ord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

Symbol of the Wine-Jars

¹² You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the L ord, the God of Israel: Every wine-jar should be filled with wine. And they will say to you, “Do you think we do not know that every wine-jar should be filled with wine?” ¹³Then you shall say to them: Thus says the L ord: I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. ¹⁴And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the L ord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them.

Exile Threatened

Hear and give ear; do not be haughty,

for the L ord has spoken.

Give glory to the L ord your God

before he brings darkness,

and before your feet stumble

on the mountains at twilight;

while you look for light,

he turns it into gloom

and makes it deep darkness.

But if you will not listen,

my soul will weep in secret for your pride;

my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,

because the L ord’s flock has been taken captive.

Say to the king and the queen mother:

“Take a lowly seat,

for your beautiful crown

has come down from your head.”

The towns of the Negeb are shut up

with no one to open them;

all Judah is taken into exile,

wholly taken into exile.

Lift up your eyes and see

those who come from the north.

Where is the flock that was given you,

your beautiful flock?

What will you say when they set as head over you

those whom you have trained

to be your allies?

Will not pangs take hold of you,

like those of a woman in labor?

And if you say in your heart,

“Why have these things come upon me?”

it is for the greatness of your iniquity

that your skirts are lifted up,

and you are violated.

Can Ethiopians change their skin

or leopards their spots?

Then also you can do good

who are accustomed to do evil.

I will scatter you like chaff

driven by the wind from the desert.

This is your lot,

the portion I have measured out to you, says the L ord,

because you have forgotten me

and trusted in lies.

I myself will lift up your skirts over your face,

and your shame will be seen.

I have seen your abominations,

your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions

on the hills of the countryside.

Woe to you, O Jerusalem!

How long will it be

before you are made clean?

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

We here see that Egypt and Chaldea are set in opposition, the one to the other; as though the Prophet had said, “Whenever anything is said to you about the Chaldeans, ye turn your eyes to Egypt, as though that would be a quiet residence for you; but God will prevent you from having any escape there. Now see, see your enemies who are coming from another quarter, even from Chaldea. Lift up then your eyes.” As they were so very intent on their present ease, he bids them to lift up their eyes, that they might see farther than they were wont to do.

He then says, Where is the flock which had been given to thee? and the sheep of thy glory? It is through pity that the Prophet thus speaks; for he saw by the Spirit the whole land deserted, and in wonder he asks, “What does this mean, that the flock is scattered which had been given to thee?” He addresses the people under the character of a woman, as he does often in other places. ⁹⁰⁹⁰ May not the queen regent, or governess, mentioned with the king in Jeremiah 13:18, be here meant? Sovereigns are called shepherds, and hence “flock” and “sheep” are here mentioned. — Ed. In short, he confirms what he had said before, — that he would go to some secret place, if the people were not influenced by his doctrine, and that he would there by himself deplore their calamity; but he employs other words, and at the same time intimates, that he alone had eyes to see, as others were blind, for God had even taken from them understanding and discernment. The Prophet then shews here that he saw the dreadful desolation that was soon to come; and therefore as one astonished he asks, Where is the flock with which God had enriched the land? and further he asks, Where are the sheep which possessed a magnificent honor or beauty? It follows —

⁹⁰ May not the queen regent, or governess, mentioned with the king in Jeremiah 13:18, be here meant? Sovereigns are called shepherds, and hence “flock” and “sheep” are here mentioned. — Ed.