1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,for your sin has been your downfall!
2 Return to the Lord and repent!Say to him: “Completely forgive our iniquity;accept our penitential prayer,that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.
3 Assyria cannot save us;we will not ride warhorses.We will never again say, ‘Our gods’to what our own hands have made.For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!”
4 “I will heal their waywardnessand love them freely,for my anger will turn away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;he will blossom like a lily,he will send down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 His young shoots will grow;his splendor will be like an olive tree,his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 People will reside again in his shade;they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.They will blossom like a vine,and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do with idols anymore!I will answer him and care for him.I am like a luxuriant cypress tree;your fruitfulness comes from me!
9 Who is wise? Let him discern these things!Who is discerning? Let him understand them!For the ways of the Lord are right;the godly walk in them,but in them the rebellious stumble.