4. “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
5. So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.
6. And after many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.”
7. Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.
8. Then the word of the Lord came to me:
9. “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.
11. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
12. “You shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?’
13. Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
14. And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.’”
15. Hear and give ear; be not proud,for the Lord has spoken.
16. Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness,before your feet stumbleon the twilight mountains,and while you look for lighthe turns it into gloomand makes it deep darkness.
17. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride;my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
18. Say to the king and the queen mother:“Take a lowly seat,for your beautiful crownhas come down from your head.”