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Chapter 13
1 Thus said the Lord to me: Go, and get you a linen girdle, and you shall put it about your loins, and shall not put it into water.
2 And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.
3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:
4 Take the girdle which you have got, which is about your loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
5 And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.
6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded you to hide there.
7 And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it: and behold the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.
8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
9 Thus said the Lord: after this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.
10 This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle which is fit for no use.
11 For as the girdle sticks close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all of the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, said the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
12 You shall speak therefore to them this word: Thus said the Lord God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine, and they shall say to you: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
13 And you shall say to them: Thus said the Lord: Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. with drunkenness.
14 And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, said the Lord: I will not spare, and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.
15 Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.
17 But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down the tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.
18 Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.
19 The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.
20 Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given you, your beautiful cattle?
21 What will you say when he shall visit you? for you have taught them against you, and instructed them against your own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on you, as a woman in labour?
22 And if you shall say in your heart: Why are these things come upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity, your nakedness is discovered, the soles of your feet are defiled.
23 If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you may also do well, when you have learned evil.
24 And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.
25 This is your lot, and the portion of your measure from me, said the Lord, because you have forgotten me, and have trusted in falsehood.
26 Wherefore I have also bared my thighs against your face, and your shame has appeared.
27 I have seen your adulteries, and your neighing, the wickedness of your fornication: and your abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem, will you not be made clean after me: how long yet?