Ezekiel 16:41

16:41 They will burn down your houses and execute judgments on you in front of many women. Thus I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer give gifts to your clients. ¹ 

Ezekiel 22:15

22:15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you. ² 

Isaiah 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ³ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ⁴ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ⁵ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ⁶ 

Micah 5:10-14

The Lord Will Purify His People

5:10 “In that day,” says the Lord,

“I will destroy ⁷  your horses from your midst,

and smash your chariots.

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ⁸  that you practice, ⁹ 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ¹⁰ 

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ¹¹  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ¹² 

Zechariah 13:2

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ¹³  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

[16:41]  ¹ tn The words “to your clients” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[22:15]  ² sn The ultimate purpose of divine judgment is to purify the covenant community of its sins.

[27:9]  ³ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ⁶ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[5:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “cut off” (also in the following verse).

[5:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[5:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  ¹² tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[13:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”