Hosea 14

¹Turn back, O Israel, unto Jehovah thy God, For thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity. ²Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, Say ye unto Him: ‘Take away all iniquity, and give good, And we do render the fruit of our lips. ³Asshur doth not save us, on a horse we ride not, Nor do we say any more, Our God, to the work of our hands, For in Thee find mercy doth the fatherless.’

⁴I heal their backsliding, I love them freely, For turned back hath Mine anger from him. ⁵I am as dew to Israel, he flourisheth as a lily, And he striketh forth his roots as Lebanon. ⁶Go on do his sucklings, And his beauty is as an olive, And he hath fragrance as Lebanon. ⁷Return do the dwellers under his shadow, They revive as corn, and flourish as a vine, His memorial is as wine of Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what to Me any more with idols? I—I afflicted, and I cause him to sing: ‘I am as a green fir-tree,’ From Me is thy fruit found. ⁹Who is wise, and doth understand these? Prudent, and knoweth them? For upright are the ways of Jehovah, And the righteous go on in them, And the transgressors stumble therein!

Chapter 1