Hosea 14

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall!¹

14:2 Return to the Lord and repent!²

Say to him: “Completely³ forgive our iniquity;

accept⁴ our penitential prayer,⁵

that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.⁶

14:3 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!”⁷

Divine Promise to Relent from Judgment and to Restore Blessings

14:4 “I will heal their waywardness⁸

and love them freely,⁹

for my anger will turn¹⁰ away from them.

14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily,

he will send down his roots like a cedar of¹¹ Lebanon.

14:6 His young shoots will grow;

his splendor will be like an olive tree,

his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

14:7 People will reside again¹² in his shade;

they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.¹³

They will blossom like a vine,

and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do¹⁴ with idols anymore!

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like¹⁵ a luxuriant cypress tree;¹⁶

your fruitfulness comes from me!¹⁷

Concluding Exhortation

14:9 Who is wise?

Let him discern¹⁸ 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.