² In that day,
^(A)“A pleasant vineyard,^{[a] (B)}sing of it!
³     I, the Lord, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
    Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
⁴     I have no wrath.
^(C)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
    I would march against them,
    I would burn them up together.
⁵ Or let them lay hold of my protection,
    let them make peace with me,
    let them make peace with me.”

^6 (D)In days to come^[b] Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.

^7 (E)Has he struck them ^(F)as he struck those who struck them?
    Or have they been slain ^(G)as their slayers were slain?
^8 (H)Measure by measure,^[c] by exile you contended with them;
    ^(I)he removed them with his fierce breath^[d] in the day of the east wind.
⁹ Therefore by this ^(J)the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:^[e]
(K)when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
    no ^(L)Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
^10 (M)For the fortified city is solitary,
    a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
    there it lies down and strips its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
    women come and make a fire of them.
^(N)For this is a people without discernment;
    therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
    he who formed them will show them no favor.