The Linen Loincloth
Jeremiah is told to buy a linen loincloth, wear it, and then hide it in a rock crevice at Perath. After many days he retrieves it and finds it ruined and useless, completing a visual sign before the interpretation is given.
T1his is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” 2So I bought a loincloth in accordance with the word of the LORD, and I put it around my waist. 3Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4“Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perath and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks.” 5So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me. 6Many days later the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined— of no use at all.
The LORD explains that He will ruin the pride of Judah and Jerusalem just as the loincloth was ruined. The people who were meant to cling to Him and become His glory have instead followed stubborn hearts and other gods, making themselves good for nothing.
8Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9“This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth — of no use at all. 11For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen.