The Lord promises to clean the Israelites from their idol worship and to return them to a culture of carefully obeying his Law. This is not a new covenant, but a new spirit of faithfulness to the original covenant. Likewise Christians have had their new covenant through Christ, but to realize the promises we must allow God to work through us to carefully carry out His work.

It sometimes appears that God's promises are not fulfilled. But it is not because God is not faithful, but oftentimes because the people to whom he makes his promises are not faithful themselves and must be punished. However ultimately God will be more faithful than his people for the sake of his name.

The Lord turns to judge Edom, the nation from the line of Esau. Edomites have held a perpetual hatred against the Israelites, and their opportunistic attack against Israel enraged the Lord. Even though the Lord was punishing Israel, He ultimately promised this land to them, and it was not Edom's to take, nor Edom's right to indulge their violence and hate.