3. Then the word of Adonai came to me a second time, saying:
4. “Take the waistband that you bought, which is on your waist, and get up, go to Perath and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
5. So I went and hid it at Perath, as Adonai commanded me.
6. Now it came to pass after many days that Adonai said to me: “Get up, go to Perath, and take the waistband that I commanded you to hide there.”
7. So I went to Perath, dug it up and took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it. But to my surprise, the waistband was marred, worth nothing at all.
8. Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying,
9. thus says Adonai: “Just so I will mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10. This wicked people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their own heart, and go after other gods to serve them and worship them, will be just like this waistband—worth nothing at all.
11. For just as the waistband clings to a man’s waist, so I will make the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me,” declares Adonai, “to be to Me a people, a name, a praise and a glory. But they would not obey.”