Hosea 14

Return to Yahweh

¹Return to Yahweh your God, O Israel,

²Take words with you,

Say to him,

accept good, and we will offer

³Assyria will not save us;

and we will say no more, “Our God,”

⁴I will heal their disloyalty;[#Or “backsliding”]

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

and he will strike his roots like the trees of Lebanon.

his splendor will be like the olive tree,

⁷They will again dwell in my shadow;[#Literally “They shall return, they shall dwell”; #Hebrew “his”]

and they will blossom like the plant vine;

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?[#Literally “what for me”]

I am like a luxuriant cypress;

⁹Who is wise that he can understand these things?

The ways of Yahweh are right,