A call to repentance, the promise of blessing
14
📚O Israel,return✭ to the LORD your God,
for you have stumbled
by your wickedness✭.
2 📚✭Take with you words,
and turn to the LORD. Say to him,
“Take away✭ all guilt,
and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the praise
of our lips✭ like the sacrifice of calves.
3 📚✭Assyria will not save us.
We will not ride on horses,
nor will we any longer say to
the work of our hands,
‘You are our gods’,
for in you the fatherless finds mercy✭”.
4 📚✭“I will heal their backsliding✭.
I will love✭ them freely.
For my anger has turned away✭
from him.
5 📚I will be like the dew✭ to Israel.
He will grow like the lily,
and thrust out his roots
like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 📚His branches will spread,
and his beauty will be like
the olive tree,
and his fragrance like
a cedar of Lebanon.
7 📚Those who dwell under his shade
will return.
They will come alive like the grain,
and grow like the vine;
their renown will be like
the wine of Lebanon.
8 📚Ephraim will say,
‘What have I to do any more
with idols✭?’
I have heard him,
and observed him.
I am like a green fir tree.
Your fruit comes from me✭”.
9 📚Who is wise? He will understand✭
these things. Who is discerning?
He will know them.
For the ways of the LORD✭
are right✭,
and the just will walk in them,
but the transgressors will fall in them.