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Commentary on Jeremiah 13 verses 1–11
Here is, I. A sign, the marring of a girdle, which the prophet had worn for some time, by hiding it in a hole of a rock near the river Euphrates. It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs, that a stupid unthinking people might be brought to consider, and believe, and be affected with what was thus set before them. 1. He was to wear a linen girdle for some time, Jer 13:1, Jer 13:2. Some think he wore it under his clothes, because it was linen, and it is said to cleave to his loins, Jer 13:11. It should rather seem to be worn upon his clothes, for it was worn for a name and a praise, and probably was a fine sash, such as officers wear and such as are commonly worn at this day in the eastern nations. He must not put it in water, but wear it as it was, that it might be the stronger, and less likely to rot: linen wastes almost as much with washing as with wearing. Being not wet, it was the more stiff and less apt to bend, yet he must make a shift to wear it. Probably it was very fine linen which will wear long without washing. The prophet, like John Baptist, was none of those that wore soft clothing, and therefore it would be the more strange to see him with a linen girdle on, who probably used to wear a leathern one. 2. After he had worn this linen girdle for some time, he must go, and hide it in a hole of a rock (Jer 13:4) by the water's side, where, when the water was high, it would be wet, and when it fell would grow dry again, and by that means would soon rot, sooner than if it were always wet or always dry. 3. After many days, he must look for it, and he should find it quite spoiled, gone all to rags and good for nothing, Jer 13:7. It has been of old a question among interpreters whether this was really done, so as to be seen and observed by the people, or only in a dream or vision, so as to go no further than the prophet's own mind. It seems hard to imagine that the prophet should be sent on two such long journeys as to the river Euphrates, each of which would take him up some week's time, when he could so ill be spared at home. For this reason most incline to think the journey, at least, was only in vision, like that of Ezekiel, from the captivity in Chaldea to Jerusalem (Eze 8:3) and thence back to Chaldea (Eze 11:24); and the explanation of this sign is given only to the prophet himself (Jer 13:8), not to the people, the sign not being public. But there being, it is probable, at that time, great conveniences of travelling between Jerusalem and Babylon, and some part of Euphrates being not so far off but that it was made the utmost border of the land of promise (Jos 1:4), I see no inconvenience in supposing the prophet to have made two journeys thither; for it is expressly said, He did as the Lord commanded him; and thus gave a signal proof of his obsequiousness to his God, to shame the stubbornness of a disobedient people: the toil of his journey would be very proper to signify both the pains they took to corrupt themselves with their idolatries and the sad fatigue of their captivity; and Euphrates being the river of Babylon, which was to be the place of their bondage, was a material circumstance in this sign.
II. The thing signified by this sign. The prophet was willing to be at any cost and pains to affect this people with the word of the Lord. Ministers must spend, and be spent, for the good of souls. We have the explanation of this sign, Jer 13:9-11.
1.The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle in two respects: - (1.) He had taken them into covenant and communion with himself: As the girdle cleaves very closely to the loins of a man and surrounds him, so have I caused to cleave to me the houses of Israel and Judah. They were a people near to God (Psa 148:14); they were his own, a peculiar people to him, a kingdom of priests that had access to him above other nations. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours which in his providence he showed them. He required their stated attendance in the courts of his house, and the frequent ratification of their covenant with him by sacrifices. Thus they were made so as to cleave to him that one would think they could never have been parted. (2.) He had herein designed his own honour. When he took them to be to him for a people, it was that they might be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, as a girdle is an ornament to a man, and particularly the curious girdle of the ephod was to the high-priest for glory and for beauty. Note, Those whom God takes to be to him for a people he intends to be to him for a praise. [1.] It is their duty to honour him, by observing his institutions and aiming therein at his glory, and thus adorning their profession. [2.] It is their happiness that he reckons himself honoured in them and by them. He is pleased with them, and glories in his relation to them, while they behave themselves as become his people. He was pleased to take it among the titles of his honour to be the God of Israel, even a God to Israel, Ch1 17:24. In vain do we pretend to be to God for a people if we be not to him for a praise.
2.They had by their idolatries and other iniquities loosed themselves from him, thrown themselves at a distance, robbed him of the honour they owed him, buried themselves in the earth, and foreign earth too, mingled among the nations, and were so spoiled and corrupted that they were good for nothing: they could no more be to God, as they were designed, for a name and a praise, for they would not hear either their duty to do it or their privilege to value it: They refused to hear the words of God, by which they might have been kept still cleaving closely to him. They walked in the imagination of their heart, wherever their fancy led them; and denied themselves no gratification they had a mind to, particularly in their worship. They would not cleave to God, but walked after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them; they doted upon the gods of the heathen nations that lay towards Euphrates, so that they were quite spoiled for the service of their own God, and were as this girdle, this rotten girdle, a disgrace to their profession and not an ornament. A thousand pities it was that such a girdle should be so spoiled, that such a people should so wretchedly degenerate.
3.God would by his judgments separate them from him, send them into captivity, deface all their beauty and ruin their excellency, so that they should be like a fine girdle gone to rags, a worthless, useless, despicable people. God will after this manner mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. He would strip them of all that which was the matter of their pride, of which they boasted and in which they trusted; it should not only be sullied and stained, but quite destroyed, like this linen girdle. Observe, He speaks of the pride of Judah (the country people were proud of their holy land, their good land), but of the great pride of Jerusalem; there the temple was, and the royal palace, and therefore those citizens were more proud than the inhabitants of other cities. God takes notice of the degrees of men's pride, the pride of some and the great pride of others; and he will mar it, he will stain it. Pride will have a fall, for God resists the proud. He will either mar the pride that is in us (that is, mortify it by his grace, make us ashamed of it, and, like Hezekiah, humble us for the pride of our hearts, the great pride, and cure us of it, great as it is; and this marring of the pride will be making of the soul; happy for us if the humbling providences our hearts be humbled) or else he will mar the thing we are proud of. Parts, gifts, learning, power, external privileges, if we are proud of these, it is just with God to blast them; even the temple, when it became Jerusalem's pride, was marred and laid in ashes. It is the honour of God to took upon every one that is proud and abase him.
The linen waistcloth clings about his hips. Why? In order to make clear that the people are like a shelter of God. For against those who wish to accuse God, the people of God are placed, and they cover him like a shield and do not allow something wrong to be said in what concerns God. But whenever we sin, just as the prophet puts aside this loincloth and condemns it to the Euphrates River in order that it may perish there, so the sinner is thrown from the hips of God. And once banished, he is banished to the Euphrates River, the river of Mesopotamia, where there are Assyrians, enemies to Israel, where there are Babylonians, and there he is ruined.
The girdle, or loincloth, which is attached to the loins of God, is the people of Israel, who, like this piece of linen, were assumed from the earth unwashed and having no softness or beauty, yet were nevertheless joined to God through his mercy. When Israel sinned (which is why it was represented as a loincloth), it was led across the Euphrates and Assyria and there hidden, that is, absorbed, in a manner of speaking, into the crowd of larger and innumerable peoples and from captivity. Despite this, they did not observe the precepts of God after they were restored but went after other gods in the extreme, even raising their hand against the Son of God, and then they wasted away in everlasting perdition. God’s loincloth is also every holy person who is assumed from the earth, even from the dust of the earth, and united to God as a companion, who, in a certain way, surrounds and covers with greater diligence the things that appear in God’s church to be indecent, lest they become vulnerable to the stings of the pagans and heretics. Yet, as the loincloth was affected by the water of the Euphrates and was assimilated to the river’s flow, so also Israel was imbued with the atmosphere of the Assyrian region, which destroyed its original strength and corrupted and dissolved it. Even though Israel returned to God’s service, it was never able to regain its pristine beauty, though this was not due to any severity of God’s part, but only to the Israelites’ own wickedness, for they would not hear his word but did whatever seemed good to themselves and walked in the depravity of their own hearts. But this is also why the divine word itself made the following analogy, saying, “As the loincloth clings to the loins of a man, so I have fastened and joined all the house of Israel and the whole people of Judah [obviously the ten tribes and the two] to myself, that they may be a people for my name and my praise and my glory, but none of them would listen to me, following instead their own vices.” Therefore, let the one who is able to say “it is good for me to cling to God,” be careful lest, through negligence, he is separated from the loins of God and passes into the Euphrates and is given over to the power of the king of Assyria and becomes situated not on the most solid rock but in the cleft of that corrupt and decaying rock, which is the sordid life and the wickedness of heretics, and there encounters so grave a deterioration that he would be no longer able to return to the service and the loincloth of the Lord.
(Chapter 13, verse 1 onwards) Thus says the Lord to me: Go and acquire for yourself a linen loincloth (or belt) and put it on your loins, and do not bring it into water (or do not pass it through water). So I acquired a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it around my loins. Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: Take the loincloth (or belt) that you acquired, which is around your loins, and go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock. And I went and hid it in the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. And after many days, the Lord said to me: Arise and go to the Euphrates, and take from there the girdle (or belt) that I commanded you to hide there. And I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it, and behold, the girdle had decayed so that it was of no use. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thus says the Lord: So will I cause the pride (or injury) of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem and this evil people, who refuse to hear my words and walk in the stubbornness (or direction) of their evil hearts: they have gone after foreign gods to serve them and worship them, and they will be like this useless girdle. For as the waist is joined to the loins of a man, so have I joined to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear. The girdle, or waistband, which is joined to the loins, is the people of Israel: they who have been taken up from the earth, and have not been softened, nor made white, and yet they have cleaved to God through his mercy. And when he sinned, because linen and a linen apron made of such material is rational, he was led across the Euphrates, that is, into Assyria, and there he was hidden, that is, absorbed in a multitude (or rather, magnitude) of great and innumerable nations, and regarded as nothing. But after a long time, the Prophet himself, as a type of God, freed the people from captivity. However, even after their return, they did not keep God's commandments; but they followed foreign gods, and in the end even laid hands on God's Son and brought about eternal damnation. Moreover, every holy man is a loin cloth of God, who, taken from the earth and from the mud of the earth, is joined in the partnership of God, and covers and surrounds, with greater diligence, those things which appear obscene in His Church, so that they may not be exposed to the bites of the Gentiles and the heretics. And if this loin cloth touches water and crosses the streams of the Euphrates, so that it is soaked with the moisture of the Assyrian region, it loses its original strength and decays, and is dissolved. And although it returns to the use of God, it cannot have its former beauty, not due to the hardness of God, but due to its own fault: because they do not want to hear His words, and they walk in the wickedness of their own heart, doing what seems right to them. But He Himself explains why He has put forth this similitude, saying: Just as the girdle clings to the loins of a man: so I have joined and made to cling to Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, specifically the twelve tribes, so that they would be for Me a people renowned and for praise and for glory; and for all this, they did not listen to Me, but followed their own faults. Therefore, let the one who can say: 'But for me it is good to be close to God' (Psalm 73:28), beware lest he be separated from his reins through negligence and cross the Euphrates and be given into the power of the Assyrian king, and be occupied not in the most solid rock but in the crevice of a corrupted and tainted rock, that is, be occupied with the filth and vices of heretics, and come to such putrefaction that he can no longer return to the service and the belt of the Lord.
We are the robe of Christ. When we have clothed him with our confession of faith, we, in turn, have put on Christ. It is the apostle who says that Christ is our robe, for when we are baptized, we put on Christ. We both clothe and are clothed. Would you like to know in what manner we clothe the Lord? We read in Jeremiah: “Go buy yourself a linen loincloth. Wear it on your loins, and go to the Euphrates. There hide it in a cleft of the rock. Obedient to the Lord’s command, I went to the Euphrates and buried the loincloth. After a long interval, again I went to the Euphrates, and the loincloth was rotted, good for nothing. Then the message came to me from the Lord: ‘Listen very carefully. As close as the loincloth clings to your loins, so had I made this people cling to me,’ says the Lord.” Why have I drawn this out to such length? To prove to you that the faithful are the garment of Christ.
Yet such is the order of nature. While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits upon evildoing. Isaiah goes naked without blushing, as a type of the captivity to come. Jeremiah is sent from Jerusalem to the Euphrates (a river in Mesopotamia) and leaves his girdle to be marred in the Chaldaean camp, among the Assyrians hostile to his people. Ezekiel is told to eat bread made of mingled seeds and baked over the dung of people and cattle. He is commanded to experience the death of his wife without shedding a tear. Amos is driven from Samaria. Why is he driven from it? Surely in this case, as in the others, because he was a spiritual surgeon who cut away the parts diseased by sin and urged people to repentance. The apostle Paul says, “Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” And so the Savior found it, from whom many of the disciples turned back from following him because his sayings seemed hard.
The reversed order, however, furnishes a clue for our exegesis. “The Lord is king, in splendor robed.” The Lord is king, and he is robed in the splendor of patriarchs and prophets and a people that believes. He is robed in splendor. The patriarchs and prophets have been as the garment of Christ. They are the loincloth mentioned in Jeremiah—the girdle that he wore about his loins. Do you know that the saints are like a girdle and the vestment of God? God says to Jeremiah, “As close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so had I made my people cling to me.” God’s people are as close to him as person’s clothing is to his body.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 13:3 serves as a pivotal transitional verse, marking a crucial continuation and amplification of the divine message from the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah. It signals a new, distinct phase in the unfolding symbolic act involving the linen girdle, emphasizing the deliberate, progressive, and authoritative nature of God's revelation. This verse prepares the audience for further instructions and deeper theological implications of the prophetic sign, underscoring that Jeremiah's pronouncements are not his own, but the very words of the Almighty, delivered with intentionality and purpose.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 13:3, though brief in its composition, is rich with significant literary devices that amplify its meaning and impact. The most prominent is Repetition, specifically the recurrence of the prophetic formula "the word of the LORD came unto me" (or a variation thereof) throughout Jeremiah and other prophetic books. This repetition serves to relentlessly emphasize the divine origin and authoritative nature of Jeremiah's message, reinforcing that his words are not merely human pronouncements but the very utterances of God. The phrase "the second time" also acts as a form of Continuity Marker, signaling a clear progression in the narrative and building upon previous divine instructions, thereby creating a sense of unfolding divine action and deliberate purpose. Furthermore, the verse functions as a critical Transition, effectively bridging the initial command about the linen girdle in Jeremiah 13:1-2 to the subsequent, more elaborate and impactful instructions detailed in Jeremiah 13:4ff. This transitional quality skillfully prepares the reader for the next phase of the symbolic act and its deeper, often somber, theological implications for Judah.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 13:3 profoundly underscores the active, personal, and persistent nature of God's communication with humanity, particularly through His chosen prophets. It highlights that God is not a silent or distant deity but one who consistently reveals His will, warnings, and redemptive purposes. The "word of the LORD" is portrayed as dynamic and authoritative, not merely informative but inherently powerful, carrying the capacity to bring about what it declares. The fact that it came "the second time" illustrates God's patience, thoroughness, and persistence in communicating with a rebellious people, unfolding His message in stages to ensure its clarity, impact, and the people's opportunity for response. This divine initiative in speaking to His people is foundational to the entire biblical narrative, demonstrating His unwavering desire for relationship and His steadfast commitment to His covenant purposes, even in the face of human unfaithfulness and rebellion.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 13:3, though seemingly a simple narrative connector, offers profound insights for contemporary believers regarding the nature of divine communication and our response to it. It reminds us that God is fundamentally a speaking God who desires to communicate intimately with His people. While we do not typically receive direct audible words or specific prophetic commands in the same manner as Jeremiah, God's primary and authoritative means of revelation to us today is through His inspired written Word, the Bible. This verse calls us to cultivate a posture of attentive listening, humble study, and obedient application to Scripture, recognizing that it is the very "word of the LORD" for our lives. Just as Jeremiah received instructions in stages, we too may find God's guidance and understanding of His truth unfolding progressively, requiring patience, faith, and continued, diligent engagement with His revealed truth. Our spiritual growth, maturity, and discernment are often a journey of receiving and applying God's word, step by step, trusting that He will reveal what we need to know in His perfect timing and according to His sovereign plan.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is it significant that the word of the LORD came "the second time" to Jeremiah?
Answer: The phrase "the second time" is highly significant because it underscores the continuity, intentionality, and progressive nature of God's revelation and divine plan. It indicates that the divine communication is not a one-off, isolated event but an ongoing, unfolding dialogue, building upon previous instructions and insights. In the specific context of Jeremiah 13, it signals that the symbolic act of the linen girdle, initially introduced in Jeremiah 13:1-2, is entering a new, more developed phase. God is deliberately unfolding His message step by step, allowing Jeremiah (and by extension, the people of Judah) to grasp the full weight, depth, and implications of the prophetic sign as it develops. This highlights God's patience, thoroughness, and His desire for His message to be fully comprehended and responded to by His people.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 13:3, with its profound emphasis on "the word of the LORD" coming to the prophet, finds its ultimate and most glorious fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. While Jeremiah was a faithful conduit through whom God's spoken word was delivered, Jesus is the living, incarnate Word of God made flesh, as majestically declared in John 1:1 and John 1:14. All of God's communication, revelation, and redemptive purposes, which were progressively unveiled through the prophets, culminate perfectly and completely in Him. The "word of the LORD" that came to Jeremiah was a partial and progressive unveiling of God's truth and will, but in Christ, the very fullness of God's character, nature, and redemptive plan is revealed and embodied (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is not merely a messenger of God's word; He is the message itself, the perfect and complete embodiment of God's will, wisdom, and love (Hebrews 1:1-2). Through His impeccable life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, God has spoken His final, decisive, and saving word to humanity, inviting all to respond in faith to the ultimate revelation of Himself found in the person of His beloved Son (John 3:16-17).