hosea

A Plea to Repent

14 
Israel, return to Yahweh your God,

for you have stumbled in your sin.

Take words of repentance with you

and return to the Lord.

Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin

and accept what is good,

so that we may repay You

with praise[a] from our[b] lips.

Assyria will not save us,

we will not ride on horses,

and we will no longer proclaim, ‘Our gods!’

to the work of our hands.

For the fatherless receives compassion in You.”

A Promise of Restoration

I will heal their apostasy;

I will freely love them,

for My anger will have turned from him.

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like the lily

and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

His new branches will spread,

and his splendor will be like the olive tree,

his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon.

The people will return and live beneath his shade.

They will grow grain

and blossom like the vine.

His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim, why should I[c] have anything more

to do with idols?

It is I who answer and watch over him.

I am like a flourishing pine tree;

your fruit comes from Me.

Let whoever is wise understand these things,

and whoever is insightful recognize them.

For the ways of the Lord are right,

and the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 14:2 LXX reads with the fruit
  2. Hosea 14:2 Lit repay the bulls of our
  3. Hosea 14:8 LXX reads he