5 Rather let them rely on My strength. Let them make peace with Me— make peace with Me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Did He strike Israel as He struck those who struck them? Or were they slain as their slayers were slain?
8 You contended with her by banishing her, by driving her away. With His fierce wind He expelled them on the day of the east wind.
9 So by this will Jacob’s sin be atoned and this the full price to remove his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like shattered chalk stones, so that the Asherah poles and incense rise no more.
10 The fortified city is a lonely habitation, forlorn and forsaken like the desert. There the calf will graze, there lie down and consume its branches.
11 When the boughs are withered, they will be broken off. Women come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore their Maker will show them no mercy—He who formed them will give them no grace.