1This 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 as the LORD had instructed me, 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. 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. 12Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Every wineskin shall be filled with wine.’ And when they reply, ‘Don’t we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’ 13then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. 14I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’” 15Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken. 16Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness. 17But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. 18Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.” 19The cities of the Negev have been shut tight, and no one can open them. All Judah has been carried into exile, wholly taken captive. 20Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride? 21What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor? 22And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed. 23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good— you who are accustomed to doing evil. 24“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind. 25This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. 26So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen. 27Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields— I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”
Matthew Henry's Commentary
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (18-27) 1-11 It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, ver. #9-11|. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours he showed them. They had by their idolatries and sins buried themselves in foreign earth, mingled among the nations, and were so corrupted that they were good for nothing. If we are proud of learning, power, and outward privileges, it is just with God to wither them. The minds of men should be awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger; yet nothing will be effectual without the influences of the Spirit. 12-17 As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into other countries in all the darkness of idolatry and wickedness. All misery, witnessed or foreseen, will affect a feeling mind, but the pious heart must mourn most over the afflictions of the Lord's flock. 18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then seek help from Him who is mighty to save.