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Jeremiah 13

KJV · Chapter 13/52

1Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

2So I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins.

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

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

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

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

7Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

8Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

9Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

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

11For as the 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 the Lord; 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.

12Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

13Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

14And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

15Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken.

16Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

17But 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 the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.

18Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

19The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.

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

21What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

22And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.

23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

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

25This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

26Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.

27I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jeremiah is commanded to hide a linen sash near the Euphrates River until it rots, symbolizing how the pride of Judah would be ruined, just as the sash became useless.

Explanation

Symbolic actions were a common form of prophetic communication in the Old Testament — visual, physical messages that made a stronger impression than words alone. The sash, a garment worn close to the body (just as Israel was meant to stay close to God), rots from being buried, representing how the people's original closeness to God had been corrupted by their abandonment of the covenant. The journey to the Euphrates also symbolically points to Babylon, the destination of the coming exile. The chapter closes with a powerful rhetorical question: can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? — an image of how deeply rooted habits of sin are hard to break free of on one's own.

Fun facts

  • Some scholars point out that the actual journey to the Euphrates (more than 600 km from Jerusalem) may have been symbolic or experienced in a vision, given the distance; others argue for a literal journey as a dramatic prophetic sign.
  • The saying about the Ethiopian and the leopard became a lasting proverb about how hard it is to change a deeply ingrained nature, still quoted to this day.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Jeremiah 13:1The linen belt that Jeremiah wears and later hides on the bank of the Euphrates until it rots is an enacted sign, not an isolated historical event: just as the belt clung to his body, Israel was meant to cling to God. By abandoning Him, it became something rotten and useless, like the ruined cloth.
  2. Jeremiah 13:2Jeremiah obeys the first instruction: he buys the linen belt and puts it on, beginning the prophetic enactment that will only make full sense later.
  3. Jeremiah 13:3A transition formula marking a new stage of the same symbolic enactment with the belt.
  4. Jeremiah 13:4God tells Jeremiah to hide the belt on the bank of the Euphrates River, a long journey that reinforces the symbolic weight of the act.
  5. Jeremiah 13:5Jeremiah obeys again, even without yet understanding the full purpose of the enactment — an example of obedience before explanation.
  6. Jeremiah 13:6After a long time, God tells Jeremiah to go back and retrieve the belt — the time that passed matters, because that is exactly what will leave it ruined.
  7. Jeremiah 13:7As expected after so long hidden in the damp, the belt came back completely ruined and useless — the central point of the enactment, explained next.
  8. Jeremiah 13:8A transition formula introducing God’s explanation of the meaning of the rotted belt.
  9. Jeremiah 13:9God reveals the meaning of the enactment: just as the belt rotted, the proud arrogance of Judah and Jerusalem will also be destroyed and rendered useless.
  10. Jeremiah 13:10Applies the image directly to the people: by following other gods and refusing to listen to God, they became as useless as the rotten belt.
  11. Jeremiah 13:11Explains the original purpose of the relationship: God wanted His people as close to Him as a belt clinging to the body, to be a source of honor and glory — but the people refused that closeness.
  12. Jeremiah 13:12God tells Jeremiah to use an obvious saying about filling jars with wine — the people respond with scorn, not realizing there is a second layer of meaning coming next.
  13. Jeremiah 13:13Reveals the real meaning of the saying: God will “fill” everyone, from the king to the prophets, with a drunkenness of confusion and judgment, not real wine.
  14. Jeremiah 13:14Describes the chaos that results from this “drunkenness”: the people will turn against one another, even parents against children, with God not stepping in to spare anyone this time.
  15. Jeremiah 13:15A direct appeal to abandon pride and listen to the warning before it is too late — a final invitation to humility.
  16. Jeremiah 13:16Asks that the people acknowledge and honor God while there is still time, before the darkness of judgment arrives and turns everything to confusion, like walking on dark mountains.
  17. Jeremiah 13:17Jeremiah, the prophet himself, promises to weep in secret if the warning is ignored — anticipating with personal sorrow the already-certain deportation of the people, called here the “flock.”
  18. Jeremiah 13:18Message directed to the king and the queen mother: they will lose the crown and have to sit on the ground, a very concrete gesture of humiliation and mourning in the culture of the time.
  19. Jeremiah 13:19Describes the exile already accomplished: the cities of southern Judah lie empty and shut up, because the whole people has been carried off into captivity.
  20. Jeremiah 13:20God asks Jerusalem, personified, where the people entrusted to her as a flock have gone — a rhetorical question exposing the total loss caused by the invasion from the north.
  21. Jeremiah 13:21Ironically, Judah had sought alliances with foreign powers, and now those same allies become its rulers — a pain compared to that of childbirth.
  22. Jeremiah 13:22Anticipates the question the people will ask in their suffering, and answers it: it is the direct consequence of the multitude of sins committed, a humiliation compared to being stripped by force.
  23. Jeremiah 13:23The question of whether the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard its spots, is a proverb about habits so deeply ingrained they seem impossible to change. Used here not as prejudice, but as a metaphor for how evil had already become second nature to the people.
  24. Jeremiah 13:24Compares the people scattered in exile to chaff driven by the wind — light, with no control over their own fate, scattered far away.
  25. Jeremiah 13:25God sums up that this fate of scattering is exactly what the people earned as a consequence of forgetting Him and trusting in falsehoods, the idols.
  26. Jeremiah 13:26Repeats the shocking image of public humiliation already used in verse 22, intensifying the shame that will be exposed before everyone.
  27. Jeremiah 13:27Closes the chapter with one final, sorrowful question: after everything already seen and denounced, how much longer will Jerusalem delay before she is finally made clean?

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