Jeremiah 13
The Sign of the Ruined Girdle 1–11
The Sign of the Wine Jars 12–14
A Call to Humility and Repentance 15–17
Warning to the King and Queen 18–21
The Incurable Nature of Sin 22–27
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Jeremiah 13
Verse 1
a linen girdle — Linen (pishtim) is the fabric of priestly dress (Ezek 44:17), and Jeremiah was of a priestly family (Jer 1:1). The girdle (ezor) is worn next to the loins and kept out of water, so it stays whole until the LORD tells the prophet what to do with it. The sign is explained in v.11.
Verse 4
go to Euphrates — Perath, the great river that bounded the land promised to Abram, ‘the great river, the river Euphrates’ (Gen 15:18). It is also the river by which Babylon stands: the words of Jeremiah end with a stone cast ‘into the midst of Euphrates’ to show Babylon’s sinking (Jer 51:63–64).
Verse 7
marred, it was profitable for nothing — The verb for ‘marred’ is shachath, the word the LORD uses of himself in v.9, ‘will I mar the pride of Judah’, and in v.14, ‘destroy’. ‘Profitable’ is tsalach, the verb translated ‘prosper’ in 12:1. The ruined girdle matches Christ’s saying of salt that has lost its savour (Luke 14:34–35).
Verse 9
the pride of Judah — ‘Pride’ is ga’on, the word rendered ‘swelling’ in 12:5, ‘pride of your power’ in Lev 26:19, and ‘excellency’ elsewhere. What the people took for their glory is what the LORD says he will spoil. Proverbs states the pattern: ‘Pride goeth before destruction’ (Prov 16:18).
Verse 11
cleaveth to the loins of a man — Dabaq, to cling, is the verb used twice in the verse. The LORD joined all Israel and Judah to himself ‘for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory’, the purpose set out in Deut 26:19 and Ex 19:5–6. ‘Glory’ (tiphereth) is the word of the crown in v.18 and the ‘beautiful’ flock in v.20.
Verse 12
Every bottle shall be filled with wine — The word is nebel, a large jar or skin for wine. The hearers answer with what everyone knows, and the saying carries a second meaning, which the LORD gives in the next verse: the wine is his judgment, as in the cup of his fury (Isa 51:17; Ps 75:8).
Verse 13
with drunkenness — Shikkaron is the staggering that follows drinking. All ranks are named, from ‘the kings that sit upon David’s throne’ to the priests and prophets, and they are made to drink the cup of the LORD’s wrath: ‘Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more’ (Jer 25:27).
Verse 14
I will dash them one against another — Naphats, to shatter, is the verb of Ps 2:9, ‘dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel’. Fathers and sons fall together, as in Jer 6:21. ‘Have mercy’ is racham, the word of 12:15, ‘have compassion’: here it is denied, and there it is promised.
Verse 15
be not proud — Gabah, to be high or lifted up. Three different words for pride run through the passage: ga’on (v.9), this verb, and gevah (v.17). The call to ‘Hear ye, and give ear’ rests on the plain fact that ‘the LORD hath spoken’, and the answer that fits it is the opposite of pride, the humbling of v.18.
Verse 16
the shadow of death — Tsalmaveth, the word of Ps 23:4 and Isa 9:2. Four terms for darkness are heaped together: ‘darkness’, the twilight of ‘dark mountains’, ‘shadow of death’, and ‘gross darkness’ (arapel), the gloom of Isa 60:2. ‘Give glory’ is the call to confession, as Joshua told Achan (Josh 7:19).
Verse 17
my soul shall weep in secret places — The prophet’s weeping is unseen by those he warns, as in Jer 9:1, ‘Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears’. ‘Secret places’ (mistar) is the word of Jer 23:24, ‘Can any hide himself in secret places?’ The flock he weeps over is the LORD’s own (cf. v.20).
Verse 18
the king and… the queen — ‘Queen’ is gebirah, the queen mother, the office held by Maachah under Asa (1 Kgs 15:13). The words suit Jehoiachin, who ‘went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother’ and was carried to Babylon (2 Kgs 24:12, 15; cf. Jer 22:26). ‘Humble yourselves’ answers the ‘pride’ of vv.9, 15, 17.
Verse 19
The cities of the south — The Negev, Judah’s southern country, is shut up with no one to open it. ‘Wholly’ is shalom, here meaning completeness, so the captivity is carried ‘all of it, … wholly’. The end came when ‘Judah was carried away out of their land’ (2 Kgs 25:21).
Verse 20
them that come from the north — The enemy from the north is named from Jeremiah’s call onward (Jer 1:14; 6:22). ‘Beautiful’ is tiphereth, the ‘glory’ of vv.11 and 18, so the question is where the glorious flock has gone. A flock given to shepherds to keep is the figure of Jer 23:2, where it is scattered.
Verse 21
thou hast taught them to be captains — ‘Captains’ is alluph, a chief or leader, the ‘dukes’ of Edom in Gen 36:15 and the ‘guide’ of Ps 55:13 and Jer 3:4. Jerusalem herself had taught those who would rule over her. The ‘sorrows’ (chebel) are birth pangs, as in ‘a woman in travail’ (Jer 4:31; Isa 13:8).
Verse 22
Wherefore come these things upon me? — The question is answered here and elsewhere: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me’ (Jer 16:10–11; cf. 5:19). ‘Skirts discovered’ is the shame of the exposed city, as in Nah 3:5, ‘I will discover thy skirts upon thy face’.
Verse 23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin — Cushi, a man of Cush (the KJV’s Ethiopia), is set beside the leopard as one whose natural marking cannot be changed. ‘Accustomed’ is limmud, ‘taught’, from the same root as ‘taught’ in v.21: evil has become a learned habit. The remedy promised is the new covenant, ‘I will put my law in their inward parts’ (Jer 31:33).
Verse 25
thy lot, the portion of thy measures — Goral, ‘lot’, is the word for the casting of lots, which settled both the scapegoat (Lev 16:8–10) and the land’s division (Num 26:55). A measured portion is given to the forgetful. ‘Falsehood’ (sheqer) is the LORD’s word for the idols, as in Jer 10:14, ‘his molten image is falsehood’.
Verse 27
thy neighings — Mitsholoth occurs only here and in Jer 8:16, where it is the sound of the northern horses; ni’uph, ‘adulteries’, only here and Ezek 23:43. The charges join lust and idolatry, ‘abominations on the hills in the fields’. The close, ‘when shall it once be?’, asks how long Jerusalem will go uncleansed.