The Day Is Coming

4-6 “The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale
    and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
    as a field harvested by field hands.
She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
    in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
    in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
    that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”
        Decree of the God of Israel.

7-8 Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.

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Yet some gleanings will remain,(A)
    as when an olive tree is beaten,(B)
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
    four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

In that day(C) people will look(D) to their Maker(E)
    and turn their eyes to the Holy One(F) of Israel.
They will not look to the altars,(G)
    the work of their hands,(H)
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a](I)
    and the incense altars their fingers(J) have made.

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Footnotes

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