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Thus Yahuah said to me: “Go and acquire for yourself a linen waistband, and place it upon your waist, but do not put it in water.”
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So I acquired the waistband according to the Word of Yahuah and placed it upon my waist.
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And the Word of Yahuah came to me a second time, saying,
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“Take the waistband that you acquired, which is upon your waist. Rise, go to Perat, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
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So I went and hid it by Perat, as Yahuah commanded me.
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And it came to be at the end of many days that Yahuah said to me, “Rise, go to Perat, and take from there the waistband that I commanded you to hide there.”
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Then I went to Perat and dug, and took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it. And see, the waistband was ruined; it was good for nothing.
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And the Word of Yahuah came to me, saying,
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“Thus says Yahuah: ‘In this way I shall ruin the pride of Yehudah and the great pride of Yerushalayim.
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This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart and walk after other elohim to serve them and bow themselves to them, shall become like this waistband, which is good for nothing.
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For as the waistband clings to the waist of an ish, so I caused all the House of Yisra’el and all the House of Yehudah to cling to Me,’ declares Yahuah, ‘to become to Me a people, and a Name, and a praise, and a glory. But they did not hear.’
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And you shall speak this Word to them: ‘Thus says Yahuah, Elohim of Yisra’el: Every jar shall be filled with wine.’ And they shall say to you, ‘Do we not know, knowing, that every jar is filled with wine?’
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Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahuah: See, I am filling all the inhabitants of this land, the sovereigns sitting for Daviyd upon his throne, the Kohenim, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, with drunkenness.
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And I shall dash them, each ish against his brother, fathers and sons together,’ declares Yahuah. ‘I shall not have compassion or spare or show mercy from destroying them.’”
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Hear and give ear. Do not be proud, for Yahuah has spoken.
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Give glory to Yahuah your Elohim before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains of twilight. You shall wait for light, but He shall appoint it as death-shadow and make it thick darkness.
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But if you do not hear this, my being shall weep in secret because of pride. Weeping, my eye shall weep and flow with tears, because the flock of Yahuah has been taken captive.
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Say to the sovereign and to the queen-mother, “Humble yourselves; sit down, for your beautiful crowns have descended from your heads.”
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The cities of the Negev are shut, with no one opening them. All Yehudah has been exiled; it has been wholly exiled.
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Lift your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock given to you— your beautiful flock?
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What shall you say when He visits you, when you yourself taught them to be heads over you? Shall not writhing seize you like an ishah laboring in birth?
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And when you say in your heart, “Why have these met me?” Because of the multitude of your crookedness your skirts are uncovered and your heels are treated violently.
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Can the Kushiy change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Then you also may do good, who are taught to do evil.
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“Therefore I shall scatter them like stubble passing away in the wind of the wilderness.
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This is your lot, the measured portion from Me,” declares Yahuah, “because you forgot Me and trusted in falsehood.
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Therefore I also shall uncover your skirts over your face, and your shame shall be seen—
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your adulteries and your neighing, the wickedness of your whoredom, your abominations upon the hills in the field. Woe to you, Yerushalayim! How long until you are cleansed?”