A Plea for Repentance

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,[#Hos 6:1; 12:6]

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

²Take words with you

and return to the Lord .

Say to Him,

“Take away all iniquity,

and accept that which is good;

and we will offer the fruit of our lips!

³Assyria will not save us,

we will not ride on horses.

We will no longer say, ‘Our God,’

to the work of our hands.

In You the orphan finds mercy.”

⁴I will heal their backsliding;

I will love them freely,

for My anger has turned away from him.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

he shall grow like the lily

and shall strike his roots

like Lebanon.

⁶His branches will spread out,

and his beauty shall be like the olive tree,

and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.

⁷Those that dwell under his shadow will return,[#Ps 91:1]

they will flourish like the grain

and grow as a vine.

Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after him.

I am like a green fir tree;

your fruit is found in Me.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;[#Ps 107:43]

whoever prudent, let him know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right,

and the just will walk in them;

but the transgressors stumble in them.