John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 13:1

"Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water." — Jeremiah 13:1 (ASV)

Thus says the Lord to me
In a vision, and by the spirit of prophecy: when this was said is not certain, very likely in the reign of Jehoiakim; the prophet gives an account of what had been done, the present tense is put for the past.

Go and get yourself a linen girdle ;
or, "a girdle of linens" ^F12 ; a girdle made of flax or fine linen, which the prophet had not used to wear; and having none, is bid to go, perhaps from Anathoth to Jerusalem, to "get" one, or "buy" one: this girdle represents the people of the Jews in their more pure and less corrupted state, when they were a people near unto the Lord, and greatly regarded by him, and had a share in his affections; when they cleaved unto him, and served him, and were to his praise and glory: "and" or but do not put it in water
or, "do not bring it through it" ^F13 ; meaning either before he put it on your loins; and the sense is, that he was not to wash it, and whiten it, but to wear it just as it was wrought, signifying that those people were originally taken by the Lord of his own mercy, and without any merits of theirs, rough, unwashed, and unpolished as they were:

or else, after he had wore it, as Jarchi, when it was soiled with sweat; yet not to be washed, that it might rot the sooner: and so may design the corrupt and filthy state of this people, and the ruin brought thereby upon them, which was not to be prevented.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F12: (Mytvp rwza) "cingulum linorum", Montanus.
• F13: (whabx al Mymbw) "sed per aquam non duces eam", Schmidt.