Hosea 14

1 Return, O Israel, even unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast stumbled through thy iniquity.

2 Take with you swords, and return to the Lord: say unto him, “Pardon all [our] iniquity, and accept [our return to] good; and let us repay the steers [of sacrifice] with [the prayer of] our lips.

3 Asshur shall not help us; upon horses will we not ride: and we will no more say, Ye are our gods, to the work of our hands; for in thee alone the fatherless obtaineth mercy.”

4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them.

5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall bloom as the lily; and he shall strike his roots as [the forests of] Lebanon.

6 His suckers shall spread out, and his beauty shall be as that of the olive-tree, and his smell as that of the Lebanon.

7 They shall return that sat under his shade; they shall revive as corn, and bloom as the vine: the scent of which shall be as that of the wine of Lebanon.

8 Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will observe him; I will be [to him] like a green fir-tree; through me is thy fruit found.

9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things? intelligent, that he may know them? for righteous are the ways of the Lord; and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors will stumble through them.