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New International Version (NIV) |
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1 God told me, "Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don't even take them off to wash them."
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1 This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."
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2 So I bought the shorts as God directed and put them on.
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2 So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.
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3 Then God told me,
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3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:
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4 "Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock."
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4 "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks."
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5 So I did what God told me and hid them at Perath.
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5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.
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6 Next, after quite a long time, God told me, "Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there."
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6 Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there."
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7 So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.
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7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
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8 God explained,
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8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
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9 "This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem -
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9 "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
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10 a wicked bunch of people who won't obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They're going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts.
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10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt--completely useless!
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11 Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care" - God's Decree - "so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.
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11 For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'
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| Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved. (The Message Bible Online) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
