A Plea to Return to the Lord

14 nReturn, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for oyou have stumbled because of your iniquity.

2  Take with you words

and return to the Lord;

say to him,

“Take away all iniquity;

accept pwhat is good,

and we will pay with bulls

qthe vows1 of our lips.

3  rAssyria shall not save us;

swe will not ride on horses;

and twe will say no more, ‘Our God,’

to the work of our hands.

uIn you the orphan finds mercy.”

4  I vwill heal their apostasy;

wI will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

5  xI will be like the dew to Israel;

yhe shall blossom like the lily;

he shall take root like the trees zof Lebanon;

6  his shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be alike the olive,

and his fragrance like Lebanon.

7  They shall return and bdwell beneath my2 shadow;

they shall flourish like the grain;

they shall blossom like the vine;

their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

8  O cEphraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.3

I am like an evergreen cypress;

dfrom me comes your fruit.

9  eWhoever is wise, let him understand these things;

whoever is discerning, let him know them;

for the ways of the Lord are right,

and fthe upright walk in them,

fbut transgressors stumble in them.

7 xwhen I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of ySamaria,

for zthey deal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

2  But they do not consider

that aI remember all their evil.

Now btheir deeds surround them;

cthey are before my face.

3  By their evil dthey make dthe king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

4  eThey are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough

until it is leavened.

5  On the day of four king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6  For with hearts like an oven gthey approach their intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7  All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All htheir kings ihave fallen,

and none of them calls upon me.

8  Ephraim jmixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9  kStrangers devour his strength,

and lhe knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and lhe knows it not.

10  mThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;1

nyet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

11  Ephraim is like a dove,

osilly and without sense,

calling to pEgypt, going to qAssyria.

12  As they go, rI will spread over them my net;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

sI will discipline them taccording to the report made to their congregation.

13  uWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

vI would redeem them,

but wthey speak lies against me.

14  xThey do not cry to me from the heart,

but ythey wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they gash themselves;

they rebel against me.

15  Although zI trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they devise evil against me.

16  They areturn, but not upward;2

they are blike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of cthe insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision din the land of Egypt.

Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

8 Set ethe trumpet to your lips!

One flike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because gthey have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2  To me they cry,

h“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

3  Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4  iThey made kings, jbut not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5  kI have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

lHow long will they be incapable of innocence?

6  For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

kThe calf of Samaria

mshall be broken to pieces.2

7  For nthey sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

ostrangers would devour it.

8  pIsrael is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as qa useless vessel.

9  For rthey have gone up to Assyria,

sa wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10  Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And tthe king and princes ushall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11  Because Ephraim vhas multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12  wWere I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13  As for my sacrificial offerings,

xthey sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

yNow he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

zthey shall return to Egypt.

14  For aIsrael has forgotten bhis Maker

and cbuilt palaces,

and aJudah has multiplied fortified cities;

so dI will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.