Jeremiah 13:6

"And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing."

"It came to pass after many days ..." (Jeremiah 13:6). The passing of many days was necessary in order to allow plenty of time for the linen girdle to be thoroughly rotted and spoiled. However, there was another reason: "By the `many days' are meant the seventy years of the captivity."[5]

It is a mistake to assume that it was the Babylonian captivity that mined Israel. That captivity was not the cause of Israel's apostasy; it was the result and consequence of it. Let it be remembered that the loincloth was `already dirty' when Jeremiah buried it by the Euphrates River. The complete ruination of the girdle, therefore, was not a symbol of Israel's apostasy, which was already complete, but a symbol of the complete spoiling of their pride, national institutions, and their general attitude of rebellion against God. After their return from Babylon, the "righteous remnant" never again resorted to the Baalim. It may be also that the symbolism of the rotten, mined girdle applied to the "vast majority" of the Once Chosen People who never returned to Judah, even after God commanded them to do so. They were lost forever as an identifiable race or nation.