Jeremiah 13:26

Hebrew Bible

24 “The Lord says, ‘That is why I will scatter your people like chaff that is blown away by a desert wind. 25 This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods. 26 So I will pull your skirt up over your face and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress! 27 People of Jerusalem, I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. I have seen your disgusting acts of worship on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

Nahum 3:5

Hebrew Bible

3 The charioteers will charge ahead; their swords will flash and their spears will glimmer! There will be many people slain; there will be piles of the dead and countless casualties—so many that people will stumble over the corpses. 4 Because you have acted like a wanton prostitute—a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, who enslaves nations by her harlotry, and entices peoples by her sorcery— 5 “I am against you,” declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “I will strip off your clothes! I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms. 6 I will pelt you with filth; I will treat you with contempt; I will make you a public spectacle. 7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust; they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated! Who will lament for her?’ There will be no one to comfort you!”

 Notes and References

"... Verses 7–9 deal with Jerusalem’s fate and uncleanness because of her sins. Again there is a contrast between the splendour of the past in Jerusalem (the name is used here for the first time) and the present time of affliction and wandering (also in 3:19). When the people of Jerusalem were conquered by the Babylonians, none of their former allies (e.g. Egypt) was there to help. Jerusalem became the object of ridicule (see Deuteronomy 28:37; Psalm 44:13–16; 79:4; Jeremiah 24:9). The picture here is of someone completely abandoned (‘no-one to help her’, verse 7; compare ‘none to comfort’, verse 2), ridiculed and put to shame, one of the worst things in many cultures. Verses 8–9 concentrate on the city’s uncleanness, caused by her many sins (see verse 5). The Hebrew word for unclean (verse 8) occurs only here. It may be derived from a verb meaning ‘to shake the head’ in scorn. This would match the end of verse 7. The Hebrew verb related to this is used in Psalm 44:14 and Jeremiah 18:16, but the word ‘head’ is included, which is absent from the verse in Lamentations. In verse 8 this word may be translated as ‘uncleanness’, which is a helpful link with what follows in the rest of the verse and in verse 9 and the reference to ritual uncleanness and nakedness. Uncleanness may refer to menstruation (see verse 18:19); nakedness itself was also considered to be shameful. In Jeremiah 13:26 and Nahum 3:5, God’s punishment of a sinful town is expressed in similar language: he will lift up their skirts ..."

Lalleman-de Winkel, H. Jeremiah and Lamentations (p. 329) InterVarsity Press, 2013

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