A Linen Undergarment

¹YHWH said to me, “You are to go and buy yourself a linen undergarment, and put it on your waist, but don’t put it in water.”

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

³The word of YHWH came to me the second time, saying,

⁴“Take the undergarment 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 YHWH commanded me.

⁶After many days, YHWH said to me, “Get up and go to the Euphrates, and take the undergarment from there, which I commanded you to hide there.”

⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it, but the undergarment was ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

⁸Then the word of YHWH came to me, saying,

⁹“YHWH says, ‘In this way I will ruin 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 have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will even be as this undergarment, which is profitable for nothing.

¹¹For just as an undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says YHWH, ‘so that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory, but they would not hear.’

Wineskins

¹²“Therefore tell them this word: ‘YHWH, the God of Israel says, “Every container should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with wine?’

¹³Then tell them, ‘YHWH says, “Look, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

¹⁴I will smash them one against another, the parents and the children alike,” says YHWH: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, to keep me from destroying them.”’”

Threat of Exile

¹⁵Y’all must listen, turn an ear, and not be proud,

for YHWH has spoken.

¹⁶Y’all are to give glory to YHWH y’all’s God,

before ʜᴇ brings darkness,

and before y’all’s feet stumble on the dark mountains,

and while y’all look for light,

ʜᴇ turns it into the shadow of death,

and makes it deep darkness.

¹⁷But if y’all won’t listen,

my soul will weep in secret for your pride.

My eye will weep-and-weep,

and overflow with tears,

because YHWH’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁸You are to say to the king and to the queen mother,

“Y’all must take a humble seat.

for y’all’s crowns of majestic beauty have come down from your* heads.

¹⁹The cities of the South are shut up,

and there is no one to open them.

Judah is carried away captive: all of them.

They are completely taken into exile.

²⁰Lift up y’all’s eyes,

and see those who come from the north.

Where is the flock that was given to you,

your beautiful flock?

²¹What will you say when ʜᴇ appoints friends you have trained as leaders over you?

Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in labor?

²²If you say in your heart,

“Why have these things come on me?”

Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity,

and your heels suffer violence.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin,

or the leopard his spots?

If so, then y’all might be able to do good,

who are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴“Therefore I will 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 YHWH,

“because you have forgotten me,

and trusted in falsehood.”

²⁶Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your face,

and your shame will 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 will it yet be?”