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Jeremiah 13

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 13 of 52•27 verses

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Jeremiah 13 Overview

Jeremiah’s ruined linen girdle dramatizes Judah’s ruined pride, wine jars symbolize coming staggering judgment, and the prophet warns king and queen mother before lamenting Judah’s inability to change entrenched evil.

JeremiahBook

13Chapter

27Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 13

Coming from

Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper and receives an answer that harder trials are ahead; the LORD laments His forsaken heritage, announces judgment on evil neighbors, yet also promises to restore both Judah and surrounding nations if they learn His ways.

In this chapter

Leads into

A severe drought exposes Judah’s helplessness; Jeremiah confesses national sin and pleads for mercy, but the LORD says judgment must proceed and condemns prophets who promise peace without divine commission.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Symbolic actions and vivid metaphors communicate that Judah was meant to cling closely to the LORD but has become useless through pride and idolatry.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 13 is the chapter’s own movement: god intended covenant closeness for his glory. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God intended covenant closeness for His glory

The girdle was meant to cling, just as Israel was meant to be a people for God’s name and praise.

Pride can make a privileged people spiritually useless

Judah’s greatness is marred by refusal to hear.

Long-practiced evil creates deep moral bondage

The Ethiopian-skin and leopard-spots comparison emphasizes how entrenched Judah’s habits have become.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Deuteronomy 26:18-19

Israel was chosen to be a peculiar people for praise, name, and honor, paralleling Jeremiah’s girdle explanation.

Romans 6:16-23

Paul likewise describes sin as an enslaving master, though in a different covenant context.

Jeremiah 18

The potter imagery later shows that entrenched rebellion still does not make repentance meaningless; God calls for change.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use the Ethiopian-skin verse to make any racial claim.

Skin color is simply an unchangeable physical comparison for deeply ingrained habits.

Do not infer that sinners are metaphysically unable to respond to God’s call.

The chapter’s rhetoric stresses entrenched practice, while Jeremiah repeatedly calls Judah to repent.

Read Jeremiah 13 watching for…

the linen girdle

clinging to the LORD

pride marred

wine jars filled with drunkenness

the leopard-spots comparison

Chapter outline3 sections

1-11The ruined linen girdle pictures Judah’s pride and uselessness after clinging to other gods 12-21The wine-bottle sign warns that kings, priests, prophets, and people will be filled with drunken confusion 22-27Jerusalem’s hidden sin brings shame, and the leopard picture shows how deeply evil habits are fixed

Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.

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

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

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

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

Then I went to 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 the LORD came unto me, saying,

Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good 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 the LORD; that they might 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 the LORD God of Israel, 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?

Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit 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 the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.

Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.

Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be 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?

What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

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

This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.

I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

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Jeremiah 13:4

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