The Ruined Loincloth Series

Jeremiah 13:1-11

The Ruined Loincloth

Verse 1 Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.”

The Lord, Jehovah, said to Jeremiah, go and buy a linen loincloth. In the Hebrew, the word is Peshtae, meaning linen of flax garment. And the Hebrew word used for loincloth is ezor (Azor), meaning, waist-cloth or innermost garment. Many translations say girdle, ours says loincloth, in any case it would be a linen undergarment worn about the waist that hung down to the mid thigh.

The Lord says go buy it new, unused put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water. In other words take this garment, an intimate type of garment, a new piece of clothing, unused, clean, and do not wash it.

the belt here is linen, since Jeremiah is a priest ( the son of a priest), Exodus 28:39 “You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework”

And the priests wore linen garments. What we need to gather from this is that the garment is to be worn around the waist tightly and that it touches the skin. The position of this new garment illustrates the original relationship that this people of Judah had with God. And we can see that if this new unwashed garment is worn for any length of time, it will get grimy, dirty, again representing the tarnished relationship between God and this people.

Verse 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

Jeremiah says he did as instructed by the Lord, he buys this loincloth or girdle and places it tightly around his waist, the important part here is that this garment is linen, Leviticus 16:4 “He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments” - The close relationship between the cloth and his body is in place.

Verse 3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, Verse 4 “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”

Jeremiah has obeyed, done as instructed by the Lord, and is now given further instructions as to what to do with this linen garment that is around his waist. The Lord tells the prophet to take this garment and hide it in a cleft of the rock at the Euphrates. The word used in the Hebrew for Euphrates is p?ra? (Perawth), meaning,

from an unused root meaning to break forth; rushing; Perath (i.e. Euphrates), a river of the East:—Euphrates. Most commentators argue about the true meaning of this word although it has been used elsewhere in the Old Testament o signify the Euphrates river. Now the issue comes in when we consider the trip for Jeremiah, it would a 700 mile round trip to go and take this garment and leave it there. A trip that might take up to three months, a long time for the prophet to be gone, without being missed. Then he will go back and retrieved it as we all see shortly, another three month trip.

Now the significance of the place he is sent might tell us that he did indeed go to the Euphrates River, as it was the land of the Chaldeans, the people who would come and conquer Judah. It would be the Chaldeans who would “spoil” Judah… The people of Judah were in an apostate condition due to following after the idols and false gods of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, they had been spoiled, ruined by this despicable relationship.

Verse 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

Jeremiah saus, I did as I was instructed by the Lord, I took this garment of mine and hid it in the cleft of the rock at the Euphrates River. Again, we are not given any reason to doubt that Jeremiah went as far away as the River Euphrates, if we take the Bible at face value, and I believe we should, Jeremiah went where he was told to go.

There are some commentators who believe this place Jeremiah went was a wadi, called the Farah, which was only about four miles from Anathoth, Jeremiahs hometown. And others place this as a visionary experience, and told as a parable. We obviously has a difference of opinion here with commentators, but what we need to gain here is what is meant by what we read here. Those who heard Jeremiah speak of this, they knew full well what was meant by the prophets words toward them.