Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying,
Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me.
And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
Thus saith Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing.
For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every {Or, jar}bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every {Or, jar}bottle shall be filled with wine?
Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit {Hebrew: for David upon his throne.}upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.
Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud; for Jehovah hath spoken.
Give glory to Jehovah your God, before {Or, it grow dark}he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the {Hebrew: mountains of twilight.}dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into {Or, deep darkness}the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock is taken captive.
Say thou unto the king and to the queen-mother, {Or, Sit ye down low}Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headtires are come down, even {Or, your beautiful crown}the crown of your glory.
The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive.
Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
{Or, What wilt thou say, when he shall visit thee, seeing thou thyself hast instructed them against thee, even thy friends to be head over thee?}What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends to thee? shall not sorrows take hold of thee, as of a woman in travail?
And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore are these things come upon me? for the {Or, multitude}greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels suffer violence.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are {Hebrew: taught.}accustomed to do evil.
Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, {Or, unto}by the wind of the wilderness.
This is thy lot, the portion measured unto thee from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
Therefore will I also uncover thy skirts {Or, before}upon thy face, and thy shame shall appear.
I have seen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills in the field. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! thou wilt not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?
Querverweise zu Jeremia 13,27 Jer 13,27
For of old time {Or, thou hast}I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou saidst, I will not {Another reading is, transgress.}serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot.
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me?
For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.
How canst thou say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift {Or, young camel}dromedary traversing her ways;
a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
For of old time {Or, thou hast}I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou saidst, I will not {Another reading is, transgress.}serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot.
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?And scoffers delight them in scoffing,And fools hate knowledge?
{Hebrew: Saying.}They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; {Or, and thinkest thou to return &c?}yet return again to me, saith Jehovah.
Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
and he spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
They prate, they speak arrogantly:All the workers of iniquity boast themselves.
He hath cast off thy calf, O Samaria; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose {Or, scum}rust is therein, and whose {Or, scum}rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen upon it.
Consider, ye brutish among the people;And ye fools, when will ye be wise?
How can I pardon thee? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had {Or, according to another reading, made them swear}fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses;
Upon a high and lofty mountain hast thou set thy bed; thither also wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted! to the oppressing city!
{Or, For thy filthy lewdness}In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed thee and thou wast not cleansed, thou shalt not be cleansed from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my wrath toward thee to rest.
they were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith Jehovah, that have burned incense upon the mountains, and {Or, defiled}blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore will I {Or, measure their former work}first measure their work into their bosom.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the {Greek: powers.}mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by; his it was.
And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest for thee high places decked with divers colors, and playedst the harlot upon them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
Thou didst also take thy {Or, beautiful vessels}fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest for thee {Or, male images}images of men, and didst play the harlot with them;
and thou tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them, and didst set mine oil and mine incense before them.
My bread also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savor; and thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,
that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in {Or, setting them apart Hebrew: making them pass over.}causing them to pass through the fire unto them?
And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast weltering in thy blood.
And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick {Or, terebinth}oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols.
And I saw, and I heard {Greek: one eagle.}an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, woe, for them that dwell on the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, who are yet to sound.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.
And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is {That is, Her tent.}Oholah, and Jerusalem {That is, My tent is in her.}Oholibah.
And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
who were clothed with blue, governors and {Or, deputies See Jeremiah 51:23, &c.}rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomsoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.
Neither hath she left her whoredoms {Or, brought from Egypt}since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their whoredom upon her.
Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they slew with the sword: and she became a {Hebrew: name.}byword among women; for they executed judgments upon her.
And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister.
She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.
And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in {Or, the land of whose nativity is Chaldea}Chaldea, the land of their nativity.
And {Hebrew: at the sight of her eyes.}as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.
Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.
For when I had brought them into the land, which I {Hebrew: lifted up my hand.}sware to give unto them, then they {Or, looked out for}saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and they poured out there their drink-offerings.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask {Some ancient authorities omit a loaf, and he give him a stone? or.}a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
When Jehovah spake at the first {Or, with}by Hosea, Jehovah said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom; for the land doth commit great whoredom, departing from Jehovah.
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
lest again when I come my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed.
Ye {That is, who break your marriage vow to God.}adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.