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7-8 Has God punished Israel as much as he has punished her enemies? No, for he has devastated her enemies,[a] while he has punished Israel but a little, exiling her far from her own land as though blown away in a storm from the east. And why did God do it? It was to purge away[b] her sins, to rid her of all her idol altars and her idols. They will never be worshiped again. 10 Her walled cities will be silent and empty, houses abandoned, streets grown up with grass, cows grazing through the city munching on twigs and branches.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:7 devastated her enemies, implied.
  2. Isaiah 27:9 purge away, literally, “atone for.”

By warfare[a] and exile(A) you contend with her—
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind(B) blows.
By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned(C) for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:(D)
When he makes all the altar stones(E)
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[b](F) or incense altars(G)
    will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,(H)
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken(I) like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,(J)
    there they lie down;(K)
    they strip its branches bare.

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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