Hosea
14
1 Samaria is guilty for she rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little ones will be crushed and women with child ripped open.
2 Return to your God Yahweh, O Israel!
2 Your sins have caused your downfall.
3 Return to Yahweh with humble words. Say to him,
3 “Oh you who show compassion to the fatherless
3 forgive our debt, be appeased.
3 Instead of bulls and sacrifices,
3 accept the praise from our lips.
4 Assyria will not save us:
4 no longer shall we look for horses
4 nor ever again shall we say ‘Our gods’
4 to the work of our hands.”
5 I will heal their wavering
5 and love them with all my heart
5 for my anger has turned from them.
6 I shall be like dew to Israel
6 like the lily will he blossom.
6 Like a cedar he will send down his roots;
7 his young shoots will grow and spread.
7 His splendor will be like an olive tree,
7 his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.
8 They will dwell in my shade again,
8 they will flourish like the grain,
8 they will blossom like a vine,
8 and their fame will be like Lebanon wine.
9 What would Ephraim do with idols,
9 when it is I who hear and make him prosper?
9 I am like an ever-green cypress tree;
9 all your fruitfulness comes from me.
10 Who is wise enough to grasp all this?
10 Who is discerning and will understand?
10 Straight are the ways of Yahweh:
10 the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.