What Does Jeremiah 13:1 Mean in the King James?

Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

Jeremiah 13:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

A belt fastened at the loins makes the body the place where this sign is worn.

THE MEANING

The command moves through a precise bodily sequence: acquire a linen girdle, fasten it at the loins, and keep it out of water. The belt’s closeness to the body and its condition both matter.

THE ROOT

אֵזוֹר

ʾēzôr

GROWS FROM

אזר

ʾ-z-r

To gird or bind around.

⁨אֵזוֹר⁩, “girdle,” is linked to ⁨אָזַר⁩, “to gird,” so the word carries both the object and the act of binding it around the body. The location matters: Jeremiah 13:11 makes the girdle’s closeness to the loins central to the image.

ALSO GROWS

ʾāzar: To gird.

אָזַר

The verb names the action that gives the girdle its purpose: binding it around the body.

ʾēzôr: Belt or girdle.

אֵזוֹר

The noun names the object that is fastened at the loins in this verse.

THE PATTERN

A physical object placed on or carried by the body can become a prophetic sign through an enacted image.

And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

Isaiah 20:3 · KJVThe body’s visible condition itself carries the sign.

In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 12:6 · KJVCarrying a bundle and covering the face turns an ordinary bodily action into a sign.

And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

Acts 21:11 · KJVA girdle and bound limbs enact the message through a concrete object and bodily gesture.

THE THREAD

For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

Jeremiah 13:11 · KJV

The same Hebrew word for “girdle” returns, and the next verse names its closeness to the loins as the image’s key. The fastening commanded here becomes a picture of what cleaves closely.

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