1. The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts and put them on. Do not put them in water.”
2. So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do and put them on.
3. Then the Lord spoke to me again and said,
4. “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.”
5. So I went and buried them at Perath as the Lord had ordered me to do.
6. Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get the shorts I ordered you to bury there.”
7. So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.
8. Then the Lord said to me,
9. “I, the Lord, say: ‘This shows how I will ruin the highly exalted position in which Judah and Jerusalem take pride.
10. These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing.