Hosea 14- 1
- Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
- 2
- Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. [1]
- 3
- Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say `Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."
- 4
- "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
- 5
- I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
- 6
- his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
- 7
- Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
- 8
- O Ephraim, what more have I [2] to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."
- 9
- Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
- [2] Or offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls
- [8] Or What more has Ephraim