A Plea to Return to the LORD

¹Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

²Take 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

the vows+ of our lips.

³Assyria shall not save us;

we will not ride on horses;

and we will say no more, ‘Our God’,

to the work of our hands.

In you the orphan finds mercy.”

⁴I will heal their apostasy;

I will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

he shall blossom like the lily;

he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;

⁶his shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be like the olive,

and his fragrance like Lebanon.

⁷They shall return and dwell beneath my+ shadow;

they shall flourish like the corn;

they shall blossom like the vine;

their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

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

It is I who answer and look after you.+

I am like an evergreen cypress;

from me comes your fruit.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;

whoever is discerning, let him know them;

for the ways of the LORD are right,

and the upright walk in them,

but transgressors stumble in them.