Jeremiah 13:1-11
Chapter 13
The Linen Belt
This is what the Lord told me: “Go! Buy yourself a linen belt and put it around your waist; do not soak it in water.”So I bought the belt as the Lord commanded and placed it around my waist.
The word of the Lord came to me a second time:
“Take the belt you bought, the one you wear around your waist, and go to the torrent Perah; hide it there in a hole in the rock.”
I went and hid it as the Lord told me.
After many days, the Lord said to me: “Go to the torrent, Perah, and get the belt I ordered you to hide there.”
I went to the torrent and dug up the belt, but it was ruined and useless.
And the Lord said to me:
“In this way, I will destroy the pride and great glory of Judah—this wicked people who refuse to listen to what I say, these stubborn individuals who follow other gods to serve and worship them. And they will become like this belt, which is now useless. For just as a belt is meant to be worn around a person’s waist, so were the people of Israel and Judah bound to me—it is the Lord who speaks—to be my people, my glory, and my honor; but they would not listen.”
Commentaries
The Linen Belt.
The prophet conveys God’s message not only through oracles but also symbolically through his entire life, as demonstrated by what the Lord asks of him, such as his celibacy (16:2-4). This symbolic act emphasizes Israel’s loyalty to God, just as the linen belt must be tied around the waist (11). This relationship has been broken and, like the belt, has become useless (10). The theme of the people’s disobedience is repeated.