A Plea to Return to the Lord

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,[#6:1; 12:6; 3:5]

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

²Take with you words

and return to the Lord ;

say to him,

“Take away all iniquity;

accept what is good,

and we will pay with bulls

the vows of our lips.

³Assyria shall not save us;[#5:13]

we will not ride on horses;

and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’

to the work of our hands.

In you the orphan finds mercy.”

⁴I will heal their apostasy;[#Jer. 3:22; 6:1]

I will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;[#6:3]

he shall blossom like the lily;

he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;

⁶his shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be like the olive,

and his fragrance like Lebanon.

⁷They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;[#Ps. 91:1; #14:7 Hebrew]

they shall flourish like the grain;

they shall blossom like the vine;

their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?[#Isa. 30:22]

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress;

from me comes your fruit.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;[#Ps. 107:43; Jer. 9:12; Dan. 12:10; John 8:47; 18:37]

whoever is discerning, let him know them;

for the ways of the Lord are right,

and the upright walk in them,

but transgressors stumble in them.