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Thus says the LORD to me, "Go and buy a linen loincloth and 1put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water."
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So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.
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And the word of the LORD came to me a second time,
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"Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, 2go to the Euphrates and hide it there in 3a cleft of the rock."
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So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
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And after many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there 4the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there."
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Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took 5the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was 6spoiled; it was 7good for nothing.
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Then the word of the LORD came to me:
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"Thus says the LORD: 8Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great 9pride of Jerusalem.
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This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, 10who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is 11good for nothing.
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For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, 12that they might be for me a people, 13a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.