7-11 Has God knocked them to the ground
    as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no.
Were they killed
    as their killers were killed? Again, no.
He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence.
    He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind.
But the good news is that through this experience
    Jacob’s guilt was taken away.
    The evidence that his sin is removed will be this:
He will tear down the alien altars,
    take them apart stone by stone,
And then crush the stones into gravel
    and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines.
For there’s nothing left of that pretentious grandeur.
    Nobody lives there anymore. It’s unlivable.
But animals do just fine,
    browsing and bedding down.
And it’s not a bad place to get firewood.
    Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful.
It’s the remains of a people with no sense of God.
    So, the God who made them
Will have nothing to do with them.
    He who formed them will turn his back on them.

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Has the Lord struck her
    as he struck(A) down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
By warfare[a] and exile(B) you contend with her—
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind(C) blows.
By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned(D) for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:(E)
When he makes all the altar stones(F)
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[b](G) or incense altars(H)
    will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,(I)
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken(J) like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,(K)
    there they lie down;(L)
    they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off(M)
    and women come and make fires(N) with them.
For this is a people without understanding;(O)
    so their Maker has no compassion on them,
    and their Creator(P) shows them no favor.(Q)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  2. Isaiah 27:9 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah

Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

Read full chapter

7-11 Has God knocked them to the ground
    as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no.
Were they killed
    as their killers were killed? Again, no.
He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence.
    He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind.
But the good news is that through this experience
    Jacob’s guilt was taken away.
    The evidence that his sin is removed will be this:
He will tear down the alien altars,
    take them apart stone by stone,
And then crush the stones into gravel
    and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines.
For there’s nothing left of that pretentious grandeur.
    Nobody lives there anymore. It’s unlivable.
But animals do just fine,
    browsing and bedding down.
And it’s not a bad place to get firewood.
    Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful.
It’s the remains of a people with no sense of God.
    So, the God who made them
Will have nothing to do with them.
    He who formed them will turn his back on them.

Read full chapter

Has the Lord struck her
    as he struck(A) down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
By warfare[a] and exile(B) you contend with her—
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind(C) blows.
By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned(D) for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:(E)
When he makes all the altar stones(F)
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[b](G) or incense altars(H)
    will be left standing.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  2. Isaiah 27:9 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah

Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

Read full chapter