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3 I, the LORD , watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it. |
4 I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire. |
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me." |
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit. |
7 Has the LORD struck her
as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her? |
8 By warfare1 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. and exile you contend with her-
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east wind blows. |
9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles2 27:9 That is, symbols of the goddess Asherah or incense altars
will be left standing. |
10 The fortified city stands desolate,
an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert;
there the calves graze,
there they lie down;
they strip its branches bare. |
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator shows them no favor. |
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates3 27:12 Hebrew River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. |
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. |
