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The Living Stone and a Chosen People

2Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built^* into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture:
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
   a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him^* will not be put to shame.’
⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the very head of the corner’,
⁸and
‘A stone that makes them stumble,
   and a rock that makes them fall.’
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,^* in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy.

Live as Servants of God

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. ¹²Conduct yourselves honourably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honourable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.^*

13 For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution,^* whether of the emperor as supreme,

The Linen Loincloth

13Thus said the Lord to me, ‘Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.’ ²So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. ³And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, ⁴‘Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates,^* and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.’ ⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates,^* as the Lord commanded me. ⁶And after many days the Lord said to me, ‘Go now to the Euphrates,^* and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.’ ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates,^* and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. ¹¹For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

Symbol of the Wine-Jars

12 You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every wine-jar should be filled with wine. And they will say to you, ‘Do you think we do not know that every wine-jar should be filled with wine?’ ¹³Then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. ¹⁴And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them.

Exile Threatened

¹⁵ Hear and give ear; do not be haughty,
   for the Lord has spoken.
¹⁶ Give glory to the Lord your God
   before he brings darkness,
and before your feet stumble
   on the mountains at twilight;
while you look for light,
   he turns it into gloom
   and makes it deep darkness.
¹⁷ But if you will not listen,
   my soul will weep in secret for your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,
   because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁸ Say to the king and the queen mother:
   ‘Take a lowly seat,
for your beautiful crown
   has come down from your head.’^*
19 The towns of the Negeb are shut up
   with no one to open them;
all Judah is taken into exile,
   wholly taken into exile.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes and see
   those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
   your beautiful flock?
²¹ What will you say when they set as head over you
   those whom you have trained
   to be your allies?
Will not pangs take hold of you,
   like those of a woman in labour?
²² And if you say in your heart,
   ‘Why have these things come upon me?’
it is for the greatness of your iniquity
   that your skirts are lifted up,
   and you are violated.
²³ Can Ethiopians^* change their skin
   or leopards their spots?
Then also you can do good
   who are accustomed to do evil.
²⁴ I will scatter you^* like chaff
   driven by the wind from the desert.
²⁵ This is your lot,
   the portion I have measured out to you, says the Lord,
because you have forgotten me
   and trusted in lies.
²⁶ I myself will lift up your skirts over your face,
   and your shame will be seen.
²⁷ I have seen your abominations,
   your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions
   on the hills of the countryside.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
   How long will it be
   before you are made clean?