(This DRAFT study has been done fairly quickly, without the further guide of commentaries. I hope to improve on it later.)
Jeremiah 13:1-5, Buy a belt
This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."
So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.
Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks."
So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.
Jeremiah is ordered to buy a belt and hid it.
Jeremiah 13:6-7, A ruined belt
Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there."
So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
Later Jeremiah digs up the belt but now it is dirty and ruined.
Jeremiah 13:8-11, A ruined people
Then the word of the LORD came to me: This is what the LORD says: `In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt--completely useless! For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, `to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'
The pople of Judah will become like that belt, says YHWH.
Jeremiah 13:12-14, Filled with drunkeness
"Say to them: `This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.' And if they say to you, `Don't we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?' then tell them, `This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.'"
The people will be smashed against each other, like a crowd of drunks. YHWH will not have pity, he says.
Jeremiah 13:15-16, Darkness
Hear and pay attention,
do not be arrogant,
for the LORD has spoken.
Give glory to the LORD your God
before he brings the darkness,
before your feet stumble on the darkening hills.
You hope for light,
but he will turn it to thick darkness
and change it to deep gloom.
Hurry back to God before He brings the darkness!
Jeremiah 13:17, Weep in secret
But if you do not listen,
I will weep in secret because of your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly,
overflowing with tears,
because the LORD's flock will be taken captive.
Jeremiah will weep in secret, aware of the captivity coming upon the people of Judah.
Jeremiah 13:18-20, Come down from your thrones
Say to the king and to the queen mother,
"Come down from your thrones,
for your glorious crowns
will fall from your heads."
The cities in the Negev will be shut up,
and there will be no one to open them.
All Judah will be carried into exile,
carried completely away.
Lift up your eyes
and see those who are coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was entrusted to you,
the sheep of which you boasted?
Both high and low, royalty and everyone else, will be carried into exile.
Jeremiah 13:21-22, Mutilated
What will you say when [the LORD] sets over you
those you cultivated as your special allies?
Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?
And if you ask yourself,
"Why has this happened to me?"--
it is because of your many sins
that your skirts have been torn off
and your body mistreated.
The people's sins will eventually catch up to them.
Jeremiah 13:23, Ethiopians and leopards
Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard its spots?
Neither can you do good
who are accustomed to doing evil.
The dark skin fo the Ethiopian and the spots of the leopard are genetic, unchangeable. In the same way, the sinfulness of the people seems baked in.
Jeremiah 13:24-25, Scattered like chaff
"I will scatter you like chaff
driven by the desert wind.
This is your lot,
the portion I have decreed for you,"
declares the LORD,
"because you have forgotten me
and trusted in false gods.
The sinfulness of the people leads to dispersion and disappearance.
Jeremiah 13:26-27, Your adulteries
I will pull up your skirts over your face
that your shame may be seen--
your adulteries and lustful neighings,
your shameless prostitution!
I have seen your detestable acts
on the hills and in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you be unclean?"
In a sexual metaphor, the people are portrayed as adulterers and prostitutes, whose nakedness will be revealed to all.
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