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Jeremiah 13
The Message
Jeremiah 13
The Message
People Who Do Only What They Want to Do
13 1-2 God told me, “Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don’t even take them off to wash them.” So I bought the shorts as God directed and put them on.
3-5 Then God told me, “Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock.” So I did what God told me and hid them at Perath.
6-7 Next, after quite a long time, God told me, “Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there.” So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.
8-11 God explained, “This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won’t obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They’re going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care”—God’s Decree—“so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.
12 “And then tell them this, ‘God’s Message, personal from the God of Israel: Every wine jug should be full of wine.’
“And they’ll say, ‘Of course. We know that. Every wine jug should be full of wine!’
13-14 “Then you’ll say, ‘This is what God says: Watch closely. I’m going to fill every person who lives in this country—the kings who rule from David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, the citizens of Jerusalem—with wine that will make them drunk. And then I’ll smash them, smash the wine-filled jugs—old and young alike. Nothing will stop me. Not an ounce of pity or mercy or compassion will slow me down. Every last drunken jug of them will be smashed!’”
The Light You Always Took for Granted
15-17 Then I said, Listen. Listen carefully: Don’t stay stuck in your ways!
It’s God’s Message we’re dealing with here.
Let your lives glow bright before God
before he turns out the lights,
Before you trip and fall
on the dark mountain paths.
The light you always took for granted will go out
and the world will turn black.
If you people won’t listen,
I’ll go off by myself and weep over you,
Weep because of your stubborn arrogance,
bitter, bitter tears,
Rivers of tears from my eyes,
because God’s sheep will end up in exile.
* * *
18-19 Tell the king and the queen-mother,
“Come down off your high horses.
Your dazzling crowns
will tumble off your heads.”
The villages in the Negev will be surrounded,
everyone trapped,
And Judah dragged off to exile,
the whole country dragged to oblivion.
* * *
20-22 Look, look, Jerusalem!
Look at the enemies coming out of the north!
What will become of your flocks of people,
the beautiful flocks in your care?
How are you going to feel when the people
you’ve played up to, looked up to all these years
Now look down on you? You didn’t expect this?
Surprise! The pain of a woman having a baby!
Do I hear you saying,
“What’s going on here? Why me?”
The answer’s simple: You’re guilty,
hugely guilty.
Your guilt has your life endangered,
your guilt has you writhing in pain.
23 Can an African change skin?
Can a leopard get rid of its spots?
So what are the odds on you doing good,
you who are so long-practiced in evil?
24-27 “I’ll blow these people away—
like wind-blown leaves.
You have it coming to you.
I’ve measured it out precisely.”
God’s Decree.
“It’s because you forgot me
and embraced the Big Lie,
that so-called god Baal.
I’m the one who will rip off your clothes,
expose and shame you before the watching world.
Your obsessions with gods, gods, and more gods,
your goddess affairs, your god-adulteries.
Gods on the hills, gods in the fields—
every time I look you’re off with another god.
O Jerusalem, what a sordid life!
Is there any hope for you!”
Jeremiah 13
New International Version
Jeremiah 13
New International Version
A Linen Belt
13 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” 2 So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.
3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time:(A) 4 “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath[a](B) and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.(C)
6 Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
8 Then 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(D) of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen(E) to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts(F) and go after other gods(G) to serve and worship them,(H) will be like this belt—completely useless!(I) 11 For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown(J) and praise and honor.(K) But they have not listened.’(L)
Wineskins
12 “Say to them: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.’ And if they say to you, ‘Don’t we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’ 13 then tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to fill with drunkenness(M) all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. 14 I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no pity(N) or mercy or compassion(O) to keep me from destroying(P) them.’”
Threat of Captivity
15 Hear and pay attention,
do not be arrogant,
for the Lord has spoken.(Q)
16 Give glory(R) to the Lord your God
before he brings the darkness,
before your feet stumble(S)
on the darkening hills.
You hope for light,
but he will turn it to utter darkness
and change it to deep gloom.(T)
17 If you do not listen,(U)
I will weep in secret
because of your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly,
overflowing with tears,(V)
because the Lord’s flock(W) will be taken captive.(X)
18 Say to the king(Y) and to the queen mother,(Z)
“Come down from your thrones,
for your glorious crowns(AA)
will fall from your heads.”
19 The cities in the Negev will be shut up,
and there will be no one to open them.
All Judah(AB) will be carried into exile,
carried completely away.
20 Look up and see
those who are coming from the north.(AC)
Where is the flock(AD) that was entrusted to you,
the sheep of which you boasted?
21 What will you say when the Lord sets over you
those you cultivated as your special allies?(AE)
Will not pain grip you
like that of a woman in labor?(AF)
22 And if you ask yourself,
“Why has this happened to me?”(AG)—
it is because of your many sins(AH)
that your skirts have been torn off(AI)
and your body mistreated.(AJ)
23 Can an Ethiopian[b] change his skin
or a leopard its spots?
Neither can you do good
who are accustomed to doing evil.(AK)
24 “I will scatter you like chaff(AL)
driven by the desert wind.(AM)
25 This is your lot,
the portion(AN) I have decreed for you,”
declares the Lord,
“because you have forgotten(AO) me
and trusted in false gods.(AP)
26 I will pull up your skirts over your face
that your shame may be seen(AQ)—
27 your adulteries and lustful neighings,
your shameless prostitution!(AR)
I have seen your detestable acts
on the hills and in the fields.(AS)
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
How long will you be unclean?”(AT)
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 13:4 Or possibly to the Euphrates; similarly in verses 5-7
- Jeremiah 13:23 Hebrew Cushite (probably a person from the upper Nile region)
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.