3. Then the message from the Lord came to me a second time.
4. This was the message: “Jeremiah, take the loincloth you bought and are wearing, and go to Perath. Hide the loincloth there in a crack in the rocks.”
5. So I went to Perath and hid the loincloth there, just as the Lord told me to do.
6. Many days later the Lord said to me, “Now, Jeremiah, go to Perath. Get the loincloth that I told you to hide there.”
7. So I went to Perath and dug the loincloth out of the crack in the rocks where I had hidden it. But now I could not wear the loincloth, because it was ruined. It was not good for anything.
8. Then the message from the Lord came to me.
9. This is what the Lord said: “The loincloth is ruined and not good for anything. In the same way, I will ruin the proud people of Judah and Jerusalem.
10. I will ruin them because they refuse to listen to my messages. They are stubborn and do only what they want to do. They follow and worship other gods. They will be like this linen loincloth. They will be ruined and not good for anything.
11. A loincloth is wrapped tightly around a man’s waist. In the same way, I wrapped the family of Israel and the family of Judah around me.” This message is from the Lord. “I did that so that they would be my people and bring me fame, praise, and honor. But my people did not listen to me.”