1 O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled and fallen, due to your iniquity.

2 T ake with you words and return to the Lord. Say to Him, Take away all our iniquity; accept what is good and receive us graciously; so will we render as bullocks and pay the confession of our lips.

3 A ssyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods. For in You the fatherless find love, pity, and mercy.

4 I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from.

5 I will be like the dew and the night mist to Israel; he shall grow and blossom like the lily and cast forth his roots like Lebanon.

6 H is suckers and shoots shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like Lebanon.

7 T hey that dwell under his shade shall return; they shall revive like the grain and blossom like the vine; the scent of it shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 E phraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered and will regard and watch over him; I am like a green fir or cypress tree; with Me is the fruit found.

9 W ho is wise, that he may understand these things? Prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall stumble and fall in them.