A Plea to Return to the Lord
14 (A)Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for (B)you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept (C)what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
(D)the vows[a] of our lips.
3 (E)Assyria shall not save us;
(F)we will not ride on horses;
and (G)we will say no more, ‘Our God’,
to the work of our hands.
(H)In you the orphan finds mercy.”
4 I (I)will heal their apostasy;
(J)I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 (K)I will be like the dew to Israel;
(L)he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees (M)of Lebanon;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be (N)like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and (O)dwell beneath my[b] shadow;
they shall flourish like the corn;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O (P)Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.[c]
I am like an evergreen cypress;
(Q)from me comes your fruit.
9 (R)Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and (S)the upright walk in them,
(T)but transgressors stumble in them.
Footnotes
- Hosea 14:2 Septuagint, Syriac pay the fruit
- Hosea 14:7 Hebrew his
- Hosea 14:8 Hebrew him
Cross references
- Hosea 14:1 : ch. 6:1; 12:6; [ch. 3:5]
- Hosea 14:1 : [ch. 13:9]
- Hosea 14:2 : [ch. 5:15]
- Hosea 14:2 : Heb. 13:15; [Ps. 50:13, 14; 69:30, 31]
- Hosea 14:3 : ch. 5:13
- Hosea 14:3 : [Isa. 30:16; 31:1]
- Hosea 14:3 : [ver. 8]
- Hosea 14:3 : See Ps. 10:14
- Hosea 14:4 : Jer. 3:22; [ch. 6:1]
- Hosea 14:4 : [ch. 11:1]
- Hosea 14:5 : [ch. 6:3]
- Hosea 14:5 : Isa. 27:6
- Hosea 14:5 : [Ps. 92:12; Isa. 35:2]
- Hosea 14:6 : Ps. 52:8
- Hosea 14:7 : Ps. 91:1
- Hosea 14:8 : [ver. 3; Isa. 30:22]
- Hosea 14:8 : [ch. 2:8, 23; John 15:4, 5]
- Hosea 14:9 : Ps. 107:43; Jer. 9:12; Dan. 12:10; John 8:47; 18:37
- Hosea 14:9 : [Prov. 10:29; Luke 2:34; 2 Cor. 2:16]
- Hosea 14:9 : [Prov. 10:29; Luke 2:34; 2 Cor. 2:16]