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. 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 In days to come Jacob shall take root,Israel shall blossom and put forth shootsand fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altarslike chalkstones crushed to pieces,no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.