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

for your sin has been your downfall!

2 Return to the Lord and repent!

Say to him: “Completely forgive our iniquity;

accept our penitential prayer,

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

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!”

4 “I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely,

for my anger will turn 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 of 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 again in his shade;

they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.

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 do with idols anymore!

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like a luxuriant cypress tree;

your fruitfulness comes from me!”

9 Who is wise?

Let him discern 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.