¹ Thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go and buy thee a linen girdle and put it upon thy loins, and thou shalt not put it in water.

² And I bought the girdle according to the word of the LORD and put [it] on my loins.

³ And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,

⁴ Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise; go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

⁵ So I went and hid it in the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

⁶ And it came to pass after many days that the LORD said unto me, Arise; go to the Euphrates and take from there the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.

⁷ Then I went to the Euphrates and dug and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was rotted, it was good for nothing.

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

⁹ Thus hath the LORD said, After this manner I will cause the pride of Judah to rot and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ This evil people that refuses to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart and went after other gods to serve them and to worship them shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

¹¹ For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so I have caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people and for fame, and for a praise, and for honour; but they did not hear.

¹² Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus hath the LORD God of Israel said, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

¹³ Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus hath the LORD said, Behold, I fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness, [even] the kings that sit upon David's throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁴ And I will break them one against another, even the fathers with the sons together, saith the LORD; I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy to not destroy them.

¹⁵ Hear ye and give ear; do not be proud: for the LORD has spoken.

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before he causes darkness and before your feet stumble in mountains of darkness, and while ye look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death [and] makes [it] gross darkness.

¹⁷ But if ye will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret because of [your] pride; and weeping bitterly, my eyes shall be undone in tears because the LORD'S flock was carried away captive.

¹⁸ Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down [in the dust] because the crown of your glory has come down off your heads.

¹⁹ The cities of the south were shut up, and no one could open [them]: Judah was carried away captive; all of it, it was completely carried away captive.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, and behold those that come from the north [wind]: where [is] the flock [that] was given thee, the cattle of thy beauty?

²¹ What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? For thou hast taught them [to be] princes [and as] head over thee; shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail?

²² When thou shalt say in thine heart, Why do these things come upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered [and] thy heels made bare.

²³ Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Likewise ye also cannot do good, being taught to do evil.

²⁴ Therefore I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵ This [shall be] thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me said the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore I uncovered thy skirts before thy face, and thy shame was manifested.

²⁷ I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom upon the hills; in the same field I saw thine abominations. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean at last? How long then [shall it be]?: