The Ruined Belt
1 Yahweh said to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don’t put it in water.” 2 So I bought a belt according to Yahweh’s word, and put it on my waist. 3 Yahweh’s word came to me the second time, saying, 4 “Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me. 6 After many days, Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing. 8 Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 9 “Yahweh says, ‘In this way I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. 11 For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says Yahweh; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’ 12 “Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel says, “Every container should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with wine?’ 13 Then tell them, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14 I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says Yahweh: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”’”
A new linen belt is worn, buried, recovered rotten, and made to say that Judah was made to cling to God the way cloth clings to a waist.
The instructions are precise and the last one is odd: buy a linen belt, wear it, and don't put it in water. Linen was the priestly fabric, and the prohibition on washing keeps the cloth exactly as the body leaves it. Whatever the sign is going to mean, it will mean it about a garment that has been in contact with a man and never cleaned since. That is already a comment on the people it stands for.
Then it is buried in a cleft of rock and dug up after many days, ruined, good for nothing. The place is named with a word that can be read either as the great river to the northeast or as a small stream a few miles from Anathoth, and the English translations divide over which is meant. Nothing in the lesson depends on the distance. What the sign requires is only that the belt be put somewhere damp and left, and that it be worthless when it comes back.
The interpretation is given in one sentence, and it is worth taking slowly. As the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me. The relationship is one of contact and adornment rather than of service. The purpose is stated in four terms: for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory. Israel existed to be worn. That is a startling account of election, and it makes the ruined cloth a picture of what pride costs. This is not disobedience punished with removal. It is a thing designed to be close becoming, by rotting, something no one would put on.
The second sign in the chapter works by letting the audience answer first. Every jar should be filled with wine, Jeremiah says, and the reply comes back as a shrug — of course jars are filled with wine, everybody knows that. Then the sentence lands: the jars are the inhabitants of the land, the kings on David's throne, the priests and the prophets, and what fills them is drunkenness. And drunk men are dashed against one another, fathers and sons together, until the clay breaks. The technique is worth noticing, because Jeremiah uses it repeatedly. An obvious statement is accepted without thought, and then given its meaning after the hearers have already agreed with it.
settled What this mark means