Hosea 14

The Lord Offers to Forgive Israel

1 Israel, return to the Lord your God.You have stumbled because of your sins.2 Return to the Lord, and say these things to him:“Forgive all our sins, and kindly receive us.Then we’ll praise you with our lips.3 Assyria cannot save us.We won’t ride on horses anymore.We will never again saythat the things our hands have made are our gods.You love orphans.”4 The Lord says, “I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.I will love them freely.I will no longer be angry with them.5 I will be like dew to the people of Israel.They will blossom like flowers.They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon.6 They will be like growing branches.They will be beautiful like olive trees.They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.7 They will live again in God’s shadow.They will grow like grain.They will blossom like grapevines.They will be as famous as the wines from Lebanon.8 “The people of Ephraim will have nothing more to do with idols.I will answer them and take care of them.I am like a growing pine tree.Their fruit comes from me.”9 Wise people will understand these things.A person with insight will recognize them.The Lord’s ways are right.Righteous people live by them.Rebellious people stumble over them.

Hosea 14

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for your sin has been your downfall!t

2 Return to the Lord and repent!t
Say to him: “Completelyt forgive our iniquity;
accepts our penitential prayer,t
that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.s

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!”t

Divine Promise to Relent from Judgment and to Restore Blessings

4 “I will heal their waywardnesss
and love them freely,t
for my anger will turns 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 oft 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 againt in his shade;
they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.t
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 dot with idols anymore!
I will answer him and care for him.
I am liket a luxuriant cypress tree;t
your fruitfulness comes from me!t

Concluding Exhortation

9 Who is wise?
Let him discernt 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.