7. Has [the Lord] smitten [Israel] as He smote those who smote them? Or have [the Israelites] been slain as their slayers were slain?
8. By driving them out of Canaan, by exile, You contended with them in a measure [O Lord]–He removed them with His rough blast as in the day of the east wind.
9. Only on this condition shall the iniquity of Jacob (Israel) be forgiven and purged, and this shall be the full fruit [God requires] for taking away his sin: that [Israel] should make all the stones of the [idol] altars like chalk stones crushed to pieces, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall not remain standing or rise again.
10. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken like the wilderness; there the calf grazes, and there he lies down; he strips its branches and eats its twigs.
11. When its boughs are withered and dry, they are broken off; the women come and set them afire. For they are a people of no understanding or discernment–witless folk; therefore He Who made them will not have compassion on them, and He Who formed them will show them no favor.