Hosea 14

¹ Samaria will pay the penalty for having rebel ed against her God. They wil fall by the sword, their littlechildren wil be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women disembowelled.

² Israel, come back to Yahweh your God your guilt was the cause of your downfal .

³ Provide yourself with words and come back to Yahweh. Say to him, 'Take all guilt away and give uswhat is good, instead of bulls we wil dedicate to you our lips.

⁴ Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, foryou are the one in whom orphans find compassion.'

⁵ I shal cure them of their disloyalty, I shal love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned awayfrom them.

⁶ I shal fal like dew on Israel, he wil bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon;

⁷ he will put out new shoots, he will have the beauty of the olive tree and the fragrance of Lebanon.

⁸ They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they wil make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon's.

⁹ What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when I hear him and watch over him? I am like anevergreen cypress, you owe your fruitfulness to me.

¹⁰ Let the wise understand these words, let the intel igent grasp their meaning, for Yahweh's ways arestraight and the upright wil walk in them, but sinners wil stumble.