Hosea 14
1 Israel, convert to the Lord your God. For you have been ruined by your own iniquity.
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
2 Take these words with you and return to the Lord. And say to him, “Remove all iniquity and accept the good. And we will repay the calves of our lips.
Take words of repentance with you, and return to the Lord your God. Say to him: Wholly pardon our iniquity, accept that which is good, instead of sacrificing bulls, we offer our praise.
3 Assur will not save us; we will not ride on horses. Neither will we say any more, ‘The works of our hands are our gods,’ for those that are in you will have mercy on the orphan.”
Assyria will not save us, nor Egyptian warhorses, and we will no more call the work of our hands our gods. For in you orphan Israel finds mercy.
4 I will heal their contrition; I will love them spontaneously. For my wrath has been turned away from them.
‘I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, now that my anger is turned away from them,
5 I will be like the dew; Israel will spring forth like the lily, and his root will spread out like that of the cedars of Lebanon.
I will be as dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, he will plant his roots like the cedars of Lebanon,
6 His branches will advance, and his glory will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance will be like that of the cedars of Lebanon.
his saplings will spread out, his beauty will be like that of the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
7 They will be converted, sitting in his shadow. They will live on wheat, and they will grow like a vine. His memorial will be like the wine of the cedars of Lebanon.
People will return and dwell in my shade, they will bring life to new grain. They shall sprout like the vine, and their renown will be like that of the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim will say, “What are idols to me anymore?” I will listen to him, and I will set him straight like a healthy spruce tree. Your fruit has been found by me.
Ephraim – what have I to do with idols! It is I the Lord who respond to him and look after him. I am like an evergreen cypress, from me is your fruit found.
9 Who is wise and will understand this? Who has understanding and will know these things? For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the just will walk in them, but truly, the traitors will fall in them.
Whoever is wise, let him discern these things, prudent, let him perceive them; For the Lord’s ways are straight, and the righteous walk in them, but the wicked stumble in them.
