Hosea, 14

1. Samaria will pay the penalty for having rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little children will be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women disembowelled.

1. O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

2. Israel, come back to Yahweh your God your guilt was the cause of your downfall.

2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive [us] graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

3. Provide yourself with words and come back to Yahweh. Say to him, 'Take all guilt away and give us what is good, instead of bulls we will dedicate to you our lips.

3. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, [Ye are] our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

4. Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.'

4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

5. I shall cure them of their disloyalty, I shall love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned away from them.

5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

6. I shall fall like dew on Israel, he will bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon;

6. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

7. he will put out new shoots, he will have the beauty of the olive tree and the fragrance of Lebanon.

7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive [as] the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof [shall be] as the wine of Lebanon.

8. They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon's.

8. Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard [him], and observed him: I [am] like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

9. What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when I hear him and watch over him? I am like an evergreen cypress, you owe your fruitfulness to me.

9. Who [is] wise, and he shall understand these [things]? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD [are] right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

10. Let the wise understand these words, let the intelligent grasp their meaning, for Yahweh's ways are straight and the upright will walk in them, but sinners will stumble.

10.