hosea

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A Plea to Return to the Lord

14 
(A)Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for (B)you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept ©what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
(D)the vows[a] of our lips.
3 (E)Assyria shall not save us;
(F)we will not ride on horses;
and (G)we will say no more, ‘Our God,’
to the work of our hands.
(H)In you the orphan finds mercy.”

4 I (I)will heal their apostasy;
(J)I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 (K)I will be like the dew to Israel;
(L)he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees (M)of Lebanon;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be (N)like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and (O)dwell beneath my[b] shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 O (P)Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.[c]
I am like an evergreen cypress;
(Q)from me comes your fruit.

9 ®Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and (S)the upright walk in them,
(T)but transgressors stumble in them.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 14:2 Septuagint, Syriac pay the fruit
  2. Hosea 14:7 Hebrew his
  3. Hosea 14:8 Hebrew him