Jeremiah;- The waistcloth and the jars of wine (ch13)

Here is an description of an “acted out” prophecy (ch13 vv1-11). Sometimes this can be a very effective way of presenting a message, giving people “moving pictures” to see, just as the parables of Jesus placed pictures in their minds. Ezekiel, who was working at the same time as Jeremiah, was given a number of prophecies to be acted out, such as “besieging a city” and “digging through a wall”.

Jeremiah is told to acquire a linen “waistcloth” or loincloth, and wear it for a period. Then he is told to journey to the Euphrates and hide the cloth in a cleft in the nearby rock. “After many days”, he was told to go and collect it, and he discovered, not surprisingly, that the cloth was spoiled and good for nothing.

The word of the Lord then explains to him that this is a metaphor about “the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah”. God had chosen his people to cling close to him, just as a loincloth clings close to the loins of a man. The intention had been that they should be for him “a people, a name, a praise, and a glory” (v11). But they would not listen to him. In effect, they were refusing to cling. Instead, they were following their own hearts and going after other gods.

This could have ben a metaphor about Israel being “spoiled” by their sin, but God is not using the picture that way. Instead, the point is that he himself will “spoil” their pride by discarding them, finding them useless to him.

Presumably the “spoiling” is being done at the Euphrates to show that Babylon will be the instrument of God’s action in the spoiling of Jerusalem. We need not suppose that Jeremiah crosses the desert to hide the cloth in the vicinity of Babylon itself. The word “rock” gives away the real destination. This is not the Euphrates in the sandy plain, but the much younger Euphrates in the mountain country of the north, and the “cleft” may have been an opening in the sides of an isolated gorge.

Modern commentators discuss whether Jeremiah really acted out all these things, or whether he told the story as a kind of parable; “IF I buried a waistcloth, THEN it would get spoiled, and in the same way…” They can point to the later chapter in which Jeremiah “sends a cup round” to the various kings of the world, where it seems obvious that the “sending-round” was a notional act which was not carried out physically. On the other hand, the story is much more effective as a teaching metaphor if he can display a genuinely spoiled cloth. I’m sure that “doing it”, as in the prophecies of Ezekiel, frequently works better than talking about it.

And it is not necessary to doubt the full journey to the Euphrates. Prophets did travel. Elisha visited the king of Damascus. And the upper waters of the Euphrates had been historically the boundary of the empire of David and Solomon. At least they would have been drawing tribute from that area (which is how empires worked in those days). So that region was not necessarily out of Jeremiah’s “home territory”.

We may as well continue into the next passage, describing a dialogue (in the street? at the doors of the Temple?) between Jeremiah and the people around him (vv12-14)
Teasing the crowd, he makes the enigmatic declaration that “every jar will be filled with wine”.
Well, yes, obviously, they seem to reply; that’s what jars are for,
Now that he’s got their attention, he gives the thought a new meaning. The Lord is giving the warning that he will make everybody drunk.
The image of “making them drink wine and getting them drunk” has a very long Biblical run. Babylon is doing it in a later chapter, and again in Revelation ch17.

To understand the metaphor, we need to think about the effects of being drunk.
For one thing, it takes away people’s judgement. It also makes them less capable of acting. These ideas may well be part of the warning.
But there is another thought which will be less obvious to modern readers than it was, apparently, to the Israelites. When a man gets drunk, he gets naked (as in the story of Noah’s vineyard, Genesis ch9). Presumably this has something to do with disordered movements and loose clothing.
The significance of this point is that “naked” itself is used as a metaphor meaning “vulnerable”. So the sequence of thought is “He will make them drunk. In other words, he will make them naked. In other words, he will make them vulnerable.” That is why the later chapter says that Babylon will make the rest of the world drunk and then drink the cup herself. It means that Babylon will take power away from the rest of the world, and then lose power herself.

So the message is that God will make them powerless. This will happen to all the inhabitants of the land, including kings, priests and [false] prophets. He will dash them all against one another- perhaps literally, in prompting them to fight each other. He will refuse to take pity on them and avert their destruction.

I am figuring you out Disraeli, you are doing your best with what your have. the problem is what you have It is not the best. a good teaching will always start with a words study. the word here is GIRDLE.

A Girdle is not the same thing as a loin cloth or a waist cloth is (BTW a LOIN CLOTH and a WAIST CLOTH are not even the same things, I would say it was closer to the truth to a girdle than a loin cloth, yet neither are mentioned in the KJV 1611 Bible of 500BC the TR)

Jer 13:1 ¶ 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.
2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
3 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
4 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.
5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
6 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.
7 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.
8 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 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.
11 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.

rwza 'ezowr, ay-zore' something girt; a belt, also a band:--girdle. A girdle is a clothe that is girt about the waist. The more modern term of the use for a woman's under garment this is not. Jesus did a similar thing John 13:4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

The use of any other word than Girdle calls God's Revelation lies and God a Liar. Thus it makes the scholar god in place of God to fix Gods words because God was not powerful enough to preserve his words to every generation forever as he promised to do Psalm 12:6-7 and so here comes fallible man to the rescue to save God from the error of his words. Modern Scholar said, "God did not mean to say girdle, he meant loin cloth. That is how it is done, change the words of God, which BTW affords that person a curse found three places in Scriptures for doing such yet many modern Scholars don't seem to care about that curse.

Things that are different are not the same by limiting the girdle to a pagan Loin cloth. In all the TR copies from which the KJV is derived not one time is a Hebrew word for LOIN ever found in Jeremiah. The Hebrew word Ezowr (English Girdle) means girdle any other translation is an interpretation and doctrine of men and not from the Holy Ghost.

One question you did not answer is Why the girdle? Why the Girdle Jeremiah wore? Why not just any old cloth it would have proven the same point when buried. It is because the Term Girdle is connected to the priesthood.

Modern Commentators

: There is it, the work of others you built on. Please list the Books of these Modern Commentators so we can look for ourselves if what you say their words are, are True. I mean we are given the example of searching scriptures by Paul concerning the Beareans should we no the less do it for the works of men as well.

Now let's get to LOIN CLOTHS. I was a missionary for 15 years to tribes in So East Asia, part of acceptance from these tribes you would be presented with a newly made loin cloth and they will undress you and literally tie this thing on you. It is not just Gird about the waist they are literally tied around and up through the buttocks and repeated until nothing is left to dangle. Unlike the American Indian Style with a flap in the front and back these did not have that. They were more like the type of underwear many Jewish men wear under everything but over their privates. This was not on the loin per se as it was wrapped so tightly around the private areas and up the crack. The loin cloth only covered about 2% of my loins. So loin cloth doesn't work as it doesn't cover the loins.

The first use of Girdle, which a word study of girdle should be done is found in Exodus. But this one in Leviticus shows it best

Ex 28:4 And these [are] the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
Lev 8:7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound [it] unto him therewith.

See a girdle is not a loin cloth a loin cloth is basically underwear over ones privates but the girdles are over other clothing. When I wear a apron, I girdle it about my waist and it is on my loins that is the front part of the legs and thighs and wraps around my thighs about 2/3rds around the waist cloth looks like that except backwards to how an apron lay. That is the picture here in these verses.

Now I connected for you the first uses and it will determine the interpretation of that word for 99% of the verses that follow that uses it. a girdle is not a loin cloth. Word studies are the most important step in study before we o to teach. a Good teacher shows his students his work not just their final summation. I hope you do it in your books. I am kind of thinking you do but reading your other site I have yet to see any pre-book work you added to any of your commentary that shows how you came to the conclusions you have and teach, other than consulting other so called "Modern Commentators".

Here is another use and it shows it is not a loin cloth

Ex 39:29 And a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needlework; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Yet another

Psalm 109:19 Let it be unto him as the garment [which] covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

(of course this verse is equating ones wickedness as a garment girdled on a man which cannot be removed). Loin cloths & waist cloths covereth not but a small portion and that is not what the Psalmist is saying. Here it means "entirely covered with" the first use of the Hebrew word atah or covering proves it is a complete covering

Lev 13:45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

the point being that a loin cloth nor a waist cloth completely cover the loins so Girdle is the best word God could inspire for Jeremiah to use to point Israel in the right direction but we all know they had a veil over their eyes and that veil is still there today.