The Lord explains the significance of Jeremiah having to wear the loincloth before he buried it. Just as the loincloth had clung closely to his waist, so the Lord has made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.
The loincloth represents the closeness of the covenant relationship that the Lord had established with his people. The Hebrew word for cling
is dabaq and is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 to describe the union between Adam and Eve; it implies a close and intimate relationship.1 In this close relationship with the Lord, they were supposed to display his name, his praise, and his glory. The language used here echoes the language and themes of Deuteronomy, in particular Deuteronomy 26:17–19, highlighting the fact that the background to this symbolic act is Israel’s covenant relationship with the Lord.2 The people of Judah have shown themselves to be good for nothing
in this relationship because they would not listen.
The end result is that they would be exiled from the land, just as the Lord promised when he established the covenant with Israel, but even then, he always held out the hope of restoration.
11 For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.