(7) The girdle was marred.--The symbolism is explained in Jeremiah 13:9. The girdle stained, decayed, worthless, was a parable of the state of Judah after the exile, stripped of all its outward greatness, losing the place which it had once occupied among the nations of the earth.

Verse 7. - I went... and digged. The apron, then, had been covered with a thick layer of earth.

13:1-11 It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, ver. 9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours he showed them. They had by their idolatries and sins buried themselves in foreign earth, mingled among the nations, and were so corrupted that they were good for nothing. If we are proud of learning, power, and outward privileges, it is just with God to wither them. The minds of men should be awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger; yet nothing will be effectual without the influences of the Spirit.Then I went to Euphrates,.... In a vision; this is the second journey, of which See Gill on Jeremiah 13:5,

and digged; the hole, in process of time, being stopped up with soil or sand, that were thrown up over it; this digging was in a visionary way; see Ezekiel 8:8,

and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; which he knew again by some token or another:

and, behold, the girdle was marred; or "corrupted" (q); it was become rotten by the washing of the water over it, and its long continuance in such a place:

it was profitable for nothing; it could not be put upon a man's loins, or be wore any more; nor was it fit for any other use, it was so sadly spoiled and so thoroughly rotten. It is in the Hebrew text, "it shall not prosper to all" (r) things; that is, not "to anything" (s), as many render it.

(q) "corruptum erat", Munster, Montanus, Schmidt; "computruerat", Pagninus. (r) "non proficiet omnibus", Vatablus. (s) "Non prosperabitur cuiquam", Montanus; "ad ullam rem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.