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They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles[a] for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places.

Israel captured powerful cities and chased out the people who lived there. But these cities will lie in ruins, covered over with weeds and underbrush.[b]

10 Israel, you have forgotten
    the God who saves you,
the one who is the mighty rock[c]
    where you find protection.
You plant the finest flowers
    to honor a foreign god.

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Footnotes

  1. 17.8 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
  2. 17.9 covered … underbrush: Hebrew; one ancient translation “like the cities of the Hivites and the Amorites.”
  3. 17.10 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has “rock,” which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.

They will not look to the altars,(A)
    the work of their hands,(B)
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a](C)
    and the incense altars their fingers(D) have made.

In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth.(E) And all will be desolation.

10 You have forgotten(F) God your Savior;(G)
    you have not remembered the Rock,(H) your fortress.(I)
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
    and plant imported vines,(J)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 17:8 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah

They will not trust the altars ·they have made [L the work of their hands],
    nor will they trust what their ·hands [L fingers] have made,
not even the ·Asherah idols [L Asherahs; C sacred trees or poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah] and ·altars [incense altars].

·At that time [L In that day] all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the ·cities the Hivites and [or wooded heights] the Amorites left when the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.

10 You have forgotten the God who ·saves [rescues] you;
    you have not remembered ·that God is your place of safety [L the Rock, your stronghold/strength].
You plant ·the finest [beautiful; pleasant] plants
    and grapevines from ·faraway [exotic; foreign] places.

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