They will not be infatuated with the religious altars their own hands crafted, nor by what their own fingers have made, nor with their sacred groves or altars of incense.
In that day, neither the remnant of Israel nor the survivors of the house of Jacob will lean anymore upon the one who abused them, but they will lean fully on the faithfulness of the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.
On that day their bustling cities will become deserted like those conquered by the Israelites— abandoned to thickets and undergrowth, it will all become desolate.
By the mercy of Yahweh the guilt of Jacob will be forgiven. Yet the full proof of their forgiveness will be when they crush all the altars to false gods and make them into chalkstones, crushed to pieces, with neither cultic poles nor incense altars still standing.
Then you will see your idols as they are—unclean! Your silver-overlaid idols and gold-plated images are defiled. You will discard them like a filthy menstrual cloth, saying to them, “Good riddance!”
They smashed and burned their gods, for they’re not truly gods but mere idols made by human hands shaped from wood and stone. That’s why they could be destroyed.
The wood serves man for fuel; some he uses to warm himself and with some he bakes his bread. But from this same wood he also makes a god to worship and bows down to the idol he formed.
I will sprinkle purifying water over you, and you will be cleansed from all the filth of your past. I will wash you clean from the defilement of worshiping false gods.