¹Return, Israel, to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your guilt.

²Take words with you and return to Yahweh; say to him, "Take away all guilt, and take what is good, and let us repay the bulls of our lips."

³Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses, and we will no longer say "Our God" to the work of our hands, for the fatherless finds compassion in you.

⁴I will heal their turning away; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will bud like the lily, and strike his roots like Lebanon.

⁶His young shoots will go forth, and his splendor will be like the olive, and his scent like Lebanon.

⁷Those who dwell in his shade will return; they will give life to grain and they will bud like the vine; his remembrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what more do I have to do with idols? I have answered, and I watch over him; I am like a leafy cypress; from me your fruit is found.

⁹Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Discerning, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are straight, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebels stumble in them.