13:1 The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts 1 and put them on. 2 Do not put them in water.” 3 13:2 So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do 4 and put them on. 5 13:3 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, 6 13:4 “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing 7 and go at once 8 to Perath. 9 Bury the shorts there 10 in a crack in the rocks.” 13:5 So I went and buried them at Perath 11 as the Lord had ordered me to do. 13:6 Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get 12 the shorts I ordered you to bury there.” 13:7 So I went to Perath and dug up 13 the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found 14 that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.
13:8 Then the Lord said to me, 15 13:9 “I, the Lord, say: 16 ‘This shows how 17 I will ruin the highly exalted position 18 in which Judah and Jerusalem 19 take pride. 13:10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. 20 They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance 21 to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So 22 they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing. 13:11 For,’ I say, 23 ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah 24 tightly 25 to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. 26 But they would not obey me.