13:1  Thus the LORD said to me, "Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water."

13:2  So I bought the waistband in accordance with the word of the LORD and put it around my waist.

13:3  Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,

13:4  "Take the waistband that you have bought, which you have around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock."

13:5  So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me.

13:6  After many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there."

13:7  Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband had become ruined, it had become totally worthless.

13:8  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

13:9  "Thus says the LORD, 'Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

13:10  'This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them resemble this waistband which has become totally worthless.

13:11  'For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,' declares the LORD, 'that they might become for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.'

13:12  On all the bare heights in the wilderness Destroyers have come, For a sword of the Lord devours From one end of the land even to the other; We observe for no peace for anyone.

13:13  then say to them, thus says the LORD, " Behold I will soon fill all the inhabitants of the land - the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants with Jerusalem - with drunkenness.

13:14   "I will dash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together," declares the LORD "I will not show pity nor have sorrow nor have compassion so as not to destroy them."'"

13:15  Listen and give heed, do not show haughtiness, For the LORD has spoken.

13:16  Give glory to the LORD your God, Before He brings darkness And before your feet stumble On the dusky mountains, And while you hope for light He makes it into deep darkness, And turns it into gloom.

13:17  But if you will not listen to it, My soul will sob in secret for such pride; And my eyes will bitterly weep And flow down with tears, Because the flock of the LORD an enemy has taken captive.

13:18  Say to the king and the queen mother, " Take a lowly seat, For your beautiful crown Has come down from your head."

13:19  The cities of the Negev have become locked, And no one will open them; All Judahs captors have taken her into exile, Wholly caried into exile.

13:20  "Lift up your eyes and see Those coming from the north Where do we find the flock that received, Your beautiful sheep?

13:21  " What will you say when He appoints over you- And you yourself had taught them- Former companions will rule over you? Will not pangs take hold of you like a woman in childbirth.

13:22  "If you say in your heart, ' Why have these things happened to me?' Because of the magnitude of your iniquity Your skirts have become removed And your heels you have exposed.

13:23  " Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who have the habit to do evil.

13:24  "Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw To the desert wind.

13:25  "This has become your lot, the portion measured to you From Me," declares the LORD, "Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood.

13:26  "So I Myself have also stripped your skirts off over your face, That people may see your shame.

13:27  "As for your adulteries and your lustful neighings, The lewdness of your prostitution On the hills in the field, I have seen your abominations Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?"