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is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen sash for yourself, and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” 2 So I bought a sash according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist.
3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: 4 “Take the sash that you bought and are wearing around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it in a crevice in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.
6 Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and retrieve the sash that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I retrieved the sash from the place where I had hidden it. But the sash was ruined, and it was completely worthless.
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 of Jerusalem. 10 This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, and who follow after the dictates of their own stubborn hearts, and go after other gods to serve them and worship them, will be like this linen sash, which is of no use for anything. 11 For as a sash is bound to the waist of a man, so I have bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to Me’, declares the Lord, ‘that they may become My people for My renown, for praise, and for glory. But they would not listen’.
12 “Therefore speak this word to them: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Every winejar should be filled with wine”. And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every winejar should be filled with wine?’
13 “Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all of the people of Jerusalem! 14 And I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike”, declares the Lord. “I will not allow pity or mercy or compassion to stop Me from destroying them” ’.”
15 Hear and pay attention;
do not be proud,
for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God
before He brings the darkness,
and before your feet stumble
on the darkening mountains.
While you are looking for light,
He brings deep gloom,
and makes it thick darkness.
17 But if you will not listen,
my soul will weep in secret
because of your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly,
and overflow with tears,
because the Lord’s flock
has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and to the queen mother:
“Get off your thrones,
sit in a humble seat,
for your glorious crowns
have fallen from your heads.”
19 The cities of the Negev will be shut up,
with no one left to open them.
All Judah will be carried off into exile—
completely taken into exile.
20 Lift up your eyes and see
those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was entrusted to you,
the sheep of your boasting?
21 What will you say when the Lord sets over you
those you trained up as commanders?
Will not pangs seize you,
like those of a woman in labour?
22 And if you say in your heart,
“Why have these things happened to me?”—
it is for the greatness of your iniquity
that your skirts have been torn off,
and your body violated.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard its spots?
Neither can you also do good
when you are accustomed to doing evil.
24 “Therefore I will scatter you
like chaff driven by the desert winds.
25 This is your lot,
the portion I have measured out for you,”
declares the Lord.
“For you have forgotten Me
and trusted in false gods.
26 Therefore I will pull your skirts over your face,
that your shame may be seen—
27 Your lustful neighings,
and the lewdness of your shameless prostitutions,
I have seen your abominable acts
on the hills and in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you remain unclean?”