Jeremiah (1-31) 13:1 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Thus saith the Lord unto me, go and get thee a linen girdle [a waistcloth, an undergarment], and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.’ He is to get it straight from the maker. He is not to shrink it, or contaminate it, but to have it straight from the person who's made it, and it is to be made out of linen. This is a priestly undergarment – ‘upon thy loins’ – to be made from linen, according to the instructions given to Moses (Leviticus 16:4). Verse 11 makes clear that in this symbolic action, the Lord intends the prophet to stand for himself and the girdle for Israel, his people. As Jeremiah is to wear the girdle next to his skin, so the Lord has chosen to bring Israel to be into close relation to himself. The girdle is not to be put in water. Some think this is to avoid softening it and to keep it rough and therefore somewhat unyielding (understood as a picture of the rough state of God’s people). Others think that this refers to the washing of this garment. The priests always wore white linen folded six to seven times. They had to wash themselves and their garments regularly as a picture of sanctification (Exodus 19:10, 14; 29:4) – their office required this. But this girdle is not to be washed after use, and this will account for its subsequent deterioration, just as Israel was not washed from its sins and so rapidly slid into corruption. ‘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.’ Some people are very dubious about this. Euphrates was a 700-mile round trip from where Jeremiah was in Anathoth, and, given the terrain and the means available, that 700-mile round trip would have taken about three months in those days. They say, this is so unlikely. Well, it does sound unlikely, but it is here in the Scripture, and it is a highly significant prophetic action. It could be, of course, that this business was enacted in a vision. We cannot be sure that Jeremiah actually literally did this; it may have been in vision, but he may have literally done it; the instruction to go to the Euphrates is meaningful in the light of the judgment that is about to fall on Judah. But it is the meaning that matters. ‘Hide it there in a hole of the rock. ⁵ So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me’, a river of Assyria. Jeremiah is sent on this long journey to Babylonia: Babylon, the future captors of Judah. Babylon stands for self-indulgence, luxury. He comes from Jerusalem, the location of the temple, the seat of cleansing, the place of God’s separated people. He is to hide it in a hole in the rock and this would have involved digging. Initially he was surely puzzled at this instruction. He was a public figure and he no doubt told people where he was going. Why did he have to do this? The meaning does not become clear until later. But he obeys and returns, and tells them what Lord had instructed him to do.