DASV:  Digital American Standard Version

                                          DASV: Hosea 1

 

1 The word of the LORD came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the LORD spoke at first by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, marry a prostitute and have children with this whore, for the land commits prostitution by forsaking the LORD."


3
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 Then the LORD said to him, "Call his name Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for bloodshed at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

5 In that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."


6
She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the LORD said to him, "Call her name Lo-ruhamah [meaning, 'No pity']; for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel, that I should forgive them.

7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or by horsemen."


8
Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.

9 Then the LORD said, "Call his name Lo-ammi [meaning, 'Not my people']; for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.  In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it will be said to them, 'You are the children of the living God.'

11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together. 

They will appoint themselves one head, and return to the land from exile; for the day of Jezreel will be great.


                                          DASV: Hosea 2

 

1 Say to your brothers, 'Ammi,' [my people] and to your sisters, 'Ruhamah' [pity].

2 Plead with your mother, plead,

            for she is not my wife,

                        and I am not her husband.

  She must put away her prostitutions from her face,

            and her adulteries from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise I will strip her naked,

            as the day that she was born.

   I will turn her into a wilderness,

            and turn her into a desert land,

                        and slay her with thirst.

4 I will have no pity on her children,

            for they are children of adultery.

5 Their mother has played the prostitute;

            she who conceived them has acted shamefully;

    for she said, 'I will pursue my lovers,

            who give me my bread and my water,

            my wool and my flax, my olive oil and my drink.'

6 Therefore, I will fence her in with thorns,

            and I will build a wall to fence her in

            so that she cannot find her paths.

7 Then she will pursue her lovers,

            but she will not catch them.

    She will seek them,

            but will not be able to find them.

   Then she will say, 'I will go back to my first husband,

            for I was better back then than now.'

8 For she had no clue that I was the one

            who gave her the grain, new wine and olive oil,

            and multiplied her silver and gold,

                        which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,

            and my new wine in its season.

   I will take away my wool and my flax

            which were given to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,

            and no one will rescue her out of my hand.

11 I will also put an end to all her partying,

            her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths,

                        all her appointed festivals.

12 I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she claimed,

            'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.'

            But I will turn them into a forest,

                        and the beasts of the field will devour them.

13 I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals,
            when she burned incense,

     when she decked herself with her earrings and jewels,

            and went after her lovers,

            and forgot me," declares the LORD.

 

14 "Therefore, I will allure her,

            and bring her into the wilderness,

                        and speak kindly to her.

15 From there I will give her back her vineyards,

            and turn the Valley of Achor [trouble] into a door of hope.

    There she will respond, as in the days of her youth,

            and as on the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.


16
It will be in that day," says the LORD,
            "that you will call me 'My husband,'

            and will no longer call me 'My master.'

17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth,

            and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

18 In that day I will make a covenant

with the beasts of the field,

            and with the birds of the air,

            and with the creatures that creep on the ground.

     I will abolish the bow, the sword and battle out of the land,

            and will let them lie down in security.

19 I will betroth you to me forever.

            I will take you as my wife in righteousness,

                        justice, loyal love, and compassion.

20 I will take you as my wife in faithfulness,

            and you will know the LORD.


21
In that day, I will respond," says the LORD,

            "I will respond to the heavens,

                        and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond with grain, new wine, and olive oil,

            and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 Then I will plant her for myself in the land;

            I will have pity on Lo-Ruhamah [no-pity];

    I will say to Lo-Ammi [not my people],

            'you are my people;'

     and they will reply, 'You are my God.'"


                                          DASV: Hosea 3

1 Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites, even though they turn to other gods, and love their idolatrous raisin cakes.

2 So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver, and seven and a half bushels of barley.

3 I told her, “You must stay with me many days; you must not play the prostitute or have sex with another man, so also I will be toward you."

4 For the children of Israel will remain many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idols.

5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and will tremble before the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.


                                          DASV: Hosea 4

1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,

            for the LORD has a legal case

                        against the inhabitants of the land,

   because there is no truth, loyalty,

            or knowledge of God in the land.

2 There is only swearing and lying,

            murder, stealing, and adultery;

    nothing but bloodshed after bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land will mourn,

            and every one who lives there will waste away,

            with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air;

            even the fish of the sea will be hauled away.

4 Let no one make an accusation or rebuke;

            for your people are like those who bring

                        a case against a priest.

5 You will stumble in the day,

            and the prophet will stumble with you in the night,

                        and I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

            Because you have rejected knowledge,

                        I will also reject you as my priests.

            Since you have forgotten the law of your God.

                        I also will forget your children.

7 The more they multiplied,

            the more they sinned against me;

    they changed their glory into shame.

8 They feed on the sin of my people,

            and are greedy for their iniquity.

9 It will be: like people, like priest.

            So I will punish them for their ways,

                        and will repay them for their actions.

10 They will eat, and not have enough;

            they will play the harlot, and will not increase;

     because they have forsaken the LORD

11 to devote themselves to prostitution

            with old wine and new that enslave the heart.

12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols,

            and their diviner's rod tells them what to do;

    for the spirit of prostitution has led them astray,

            and they have played the prostitute,

                        deserting their God.

13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops

            and burn offerings on the hills,

    under oaks, poplars and terebinths,

            because their shade is good.

     Therefore your own daughters play the prostitute,

            and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute,

            or your brides when they commit adultery.

    For the men themselves consort with prostitutes,

            and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes;

     so the people who do not understand will come to ruin.

15 Though you, Israel, play the prostitute,

            yet do not let Judah become guilty.

    Do not go to Gilgal,

            or go up to Beth-aven [house of wickedness],

                        and swear, "As the LORD lives."

16 For Israel is as stubborn as a stubborn heifer.

    Should the LORD now put them out to graze

            like a lamb in a large field?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols;

            leave him alone.

18 Their drinks are gone;

            they engage in cult prostitution;

                        their rulers dearly love shame.

19 The wind has wrapped them up in its wings,

            and their sacrifices will bring them shame.


                                          DASV: Hosea 5

 

1 Hear this, O priests,

            listen, O house of Israel,

                        and give ear, O house of the king;

            for this judgment is for you.

     For you have been a snare at Mizpah,

            and a net spread on Tabor.

2 The rebels have gone deep into slaughter,

            but I will discipline them all.

3 I know Ephraim,

            and Israel is not hid from me;

    for now, O Ephraim, you have played the prostitute;

            Israel is defiled.

4 Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God;

            for the spirit of prostitution is within them,

                        and they do not know the LORD.

5 Israel's arrogance testifies against it;

            Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their guilt;

                        Judah also will stumble with them.

6 When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD,

            they will not find him;

                        he has withdrawn himself from them.

7 They have been unfaithful to the LORD,

            for they have borne illegitimate children.

     Now their new moon festivals will devour them

            along with their fields.

8 Blow the ram's horn in Gibeah;

            sound the trumpet in Ramah;

    shout the alarm at Beth-aven;

            "We are behind you, O Benjamin."

9 Ephraim will be a horrible ruin in the day of punishment;

            among the tribes of Israel I make known what will certainly happen.

10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove the landmark;

            I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed by judgment,

            because he was determined to pursue idols.

12 Therefore I will be like a moth to Ephraim,

            and like rottenness to the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,

            and Judah perceived his wound,

    then Ephraim went to Assyria,

            and sent to the great king.

      But he is not able to heal you,

            he cannot cure you of your wound.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

            and like a young lion to the house of Judah;

            I will tear them up

                        and then leave;

            I will carry them off,

                        and there will be no one to rescue them.

15 I will return to my place,

            until they acknowledge their guilt,

                        and seek my face;

      in their affliction they will earnestly seek me."


                                          DASV: Hosea 6

1 Come, and let us return to the LORD;

            for he has torn us,

                        but he will heal us,

            he has injured us,

                        but he will bandage us up.

2 After two days he will revive us;

            on the third day he will raise us up,

                        and we will live before him.

3 Let us acknowledge him;

            let us pursue knowing the LORD;

   he will come forth as sure as the morning dawns;

            he will come to us as sure as the rain,

                        as the latter rain that waters the earth.

4 O Ephraim, what am I going to do with you?

            O Judah, what shall I do with you?

            For your loyal love is like a morning mist,

                        and like the early dew that vanishes away.

5 Therefore I have cut them to pieces by the prophets;

            I have slain them by the words of my mouth;

                        my judgments shine forth like the light.

6 For I desire loyal love, and not sacrifice,

            and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 But they at the town of Adam have broken the covenant;

            there they have been unfaithful to me.

8 Gilead is a city of evildoers;

            it is stained by bloody footprints.

9 As a gang of thieves waits in ambush for their victim,

            so the gang of priests murder on the road to Shechem;

                        they have committed heinous crimes.

10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

            there Ephraim practiced prostitution,

                        and Israel is defiled.

11 O Judah, a harvest has been appointed for you too,

            when I restore the fortunes of my people.


                                          DASV: Hosea 7

1 When I wanted to heal Israel,

            then the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed,

            as well as the wickedness of Samaria.

    For they deal falsely;

            the thief breaks in;

            the gang of robbers pillage outside.

2 They do not realize in their hearts

            that I remember all their wickedness.

   Now their evil deeds have surrounded them;

            they are before my face.

3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,

            the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers;

            they are like a heated oven,

    whose fire the baker does not stir

            once the dough is kneaded until it is leavened.

5 On the feast day of our king

            the princes made themselves sick

                        inflamed with wine;

    he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6 For they have kindled their hearts like an oven,

            while they plot against him;

   their anger smolders all night;

            in the morning it flares up like a flaming fire.

7 They are all as hot as an oven;

            they devour their rulers.

    All their kings have fallen;

            not one of them calls on me.

8 Ephraim mixes himself among the peoples;

            Ephraim is a half-burnt loaf not turned over.

9 Foreigners have devoured his strength,

            and he does not even realize it.

    Gray hairs sprinkle his head
            yet he does not even know it.

10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,

yet they do not return to the LORD their God,

or seek him after all this.

11 Ephraim is like a silly dove, without sense;

they call for help to Egypt,

then go to Assyria.

12 When they go, I will spread my net on them;

I will bring them down as the birds of the air;

I will punish them, just as their assembly has heard.

13 Woe to them! For they have deserted me.

Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me.

Though I want to redeem them,

yet they speak lies against me.

14 They have not cried out to me with their heart,

but they lie howling on their beds.

     They ritually slash themselves for grain and new wine;

they rebel against me.

15 Though I have trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they plot evil against me.

16 They turn to that which is of no benefit.

They are like a defective bow.

    Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue.

This is what they will be ridiculed for in the land of Egypt.


                                          DASV: Hosea 8

1 Set the trumpet to your lips.

One circles like a vulture over the house of the LORD,

     because they have broken my covenant,

and rebelled against my law.

2 They will cry to me,
            “My God, we from Israel know you.”

3 Israel has rejected what is good;

so an enemy will pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, without my permission;

they set up princes, but I did not approve.

    From their silver and gold they made idols

            for their own destruction.

5 He has rejected your calf idol, O Samaria;

my anger burns against them;

    how long will they be incapable of innocence?

6 It is made in Israel;

the craftsman built it,

     and it is not God;

the calf of Samaria will be smashed to pieces.


7
For they sow the wind,

and they will reap the whirlwind.

    The stalks do not have heads of grain;

it will not yield meal;

      even if it did yield grain,

foreigners would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

now they are to the nations like a worthless pot.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

like a wild donkey alone by itself;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10 Even though they sold themselves among the nations,

I will now gather them;

     they will soon be crushed

under the oppression of a great king.


11
Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin offerings,

these altars have become places for sinning.

12 I wrote for him many things in my law,

but they are regarded as something strange.

13 They offer sacrifices to me,

and they eat its meat;

    but the LORD does not accept them;

            now he will remember their iniquity,

and punish their sins.

           They will return to Egypt.

14 For Israel has forgotten its Maker,

and built palaces.

     Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

            but I will send a fire on its cities,

and it will devour its fortresses.


                                          DASV: Hosea 9

1 Do not rejoice O Israel,

            do not revel like the peoples;

   for you have played the prostitute,

            forsaking your God;

     you have loved the wages of prostitution

            on every threshing floor.

2 The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them,

            and the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not remain in the LORD's land,

            but Ephraim will return to Egypt,

                        and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,

            and their sacrifices will not be pleasing to him.

    Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while mourning;

            all who eat it will be ritually polluted.

     Their bread will be used only to satisfy their appetite;

            it will not come into the house of the LORD.


5
What will you do in the day of the appointed festival,

            and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For look, even if they escape destruction,

            Egypt will still round them up.

   Memphis will bury them.

            Weeds will overgrow their silver valuables;

            thorn bushes will occupy their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come;

            the days of pay back have arrived;

                        let Israel realize this.

   The prophet is a fool,

            the one inspired is considered crazy,

   because of the greatness of your sin,

            and your hostility being so great.

8 The prophet is a watchman for Ephraim for my God;

            yet a fowler's snare is set on all his paths,

            and hostility even in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves,

            as in the days of Gibeah.

    He will remember their iniquity;

            he will punish their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;

            I saw your fathers like the first fruit on the fig tree

                        in its first season.

    But they came to Baal-peor,

            and dedicated themselves to that shameful thing,

            and became as detestable as the thing that they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird;

            there will be no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

12 Even though they bring up their children,

            yet I will take them away so that none of them will be left.

     Woe to them when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, I have seen like Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place,

            but Ephraim will bring out its children to the slaughter.

14 Give them, O LORD -- what will you give?

            Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.


15
All their wickedness is at Gilgal;

            for there I came to hate them.

     Because of their wicked deeds,

            I will drive them out of my house.

     I will love them no more;

            all their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim is struck down,

            their root is dried up,

                        they will bear no fruit.

     Even though they bear children,

            I will slay the cherished fruit of their womb.

17 My God will cast them away

            because they did not listen to him;

     they will be wanderers among the nations.


                                          DASV: Hosea 10

 

1 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.

    The more its fruit multiplied,

            the more it multiplied itis altars;

    the more the land produced,

            the more they produced idolatrous pillars.

2 Their heart is divided;

            now they will be found guilty.

    He will break down their altars;

            he will destroy their idolatrous pillars.


3
Surely now they will say,

            "We have no king,

                        since we did not fear the LORD;

            and as far as a king,

                        what can he really do for us?"

4 They speak meaningless words,

            with false oaths they make covenants.

   Therefore litigation sprouts up like poisonous weeds

            in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror

            for the calf-idol of Beth-Aven [house of wickedness].

   Its people will mourn over it,

            and the idolatrous priests will wail over it,

                        for its glory has departed from it.

6 The idol itself will be carried off to Assyria

            as a present to the great king.

   Ephraim will be put to shame,

            and Israel will be ashamed of its idol.

7 Samaria and her king will be cut off,

            floating away like a twig on the surface of the water.

8 The high places also of Aven [wickedness],
            the sin of Israel, will be destroyed.

                        Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars.

    Then they will beg the mountains, “Cover us,”

 and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

9 O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah,

there they have continued.

     Did not war against wicked men

overtake them in Gibeah?

10 When it pleases me, I will punish them.

Nations will be gathered against them,

when they are tied up for their two sins.

11 Ephraim is a well-trained heifer

that loves to tread out the grain;

     but I myself  have put a yoke upon her neck,

I will put a harness on Ephraim.

     Judah will plow,

Jacob will break up the ground.

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap loyal love.

    Break up your fallow ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD

    until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

13 You have plowed wickedness,

you have reaped injustice;

     you have eaten the fruit of lies,

            because you trusted in your own strength,

in your many mighty warriors.

14 Therefore the din of battle will rise against your people,

 and all your fortresses will be destroyed,

     just like when Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when both mother and children were dashed to pieces.

15 The same thing will happen to you, O Bethel,

because of your great wickedness;

     at daybreak the king of Israel be totally destroyed.


                                          DASV: Hosea 11

1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and called my son out of Egypt.

2 The more I called them,

the more they went away from me.

    They sacrificed to Baals,

and burned incense to idols.

3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them by their arms;

but they did not acknowledge that I healed them.

4 I led them with cords of kindness

and bands of love.

    I was to them as those who lift up a yoke off their neck,

and bent over to feed them.


5
They will not return to the land of Egypt;

but Assyria will be their king,

because they refused to repent.

6 The sword will slash in their cities,

and it will consume the bars of their gates.

     It will devour them because of their evil plans.

7 My people are bent on turning away from me.

Though they call to the Most High,
            he will not raise them up.

8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I surrender you, O Israel?

How can I make you like Admah?
       How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

 I have had a change of heart;

my compassions grow warm.

9 I will not give vent to my fierce anger;

I will not destroy Ephraim again.

     For I am God and not a man,

 the Holy One in the midst of you.

 I will not come in wrath.

10 They will follow the LORD,

who roars like a lion;

     for he will roar,

and his children will come trembling from the west.

11 They will come back trembling like birds from Egypt,

like a dove from the land of Assyria.

     I will resettle them in their homes, says the LORD.


12
Ephraim surrounded me with lies,

and the house of Israel with deceit;

   but Judah still travels with God,

and is faithful to the Holy One.


                                          DASV: Hosea 12

1 Ephraim feeds on wind,

            and chases after the desert east wind;

                        he multiplies lies and violence.

   They make a treaty with Assyria,

            and olive oil is carried to Egypt.


2
The LORD has a case against Judah,

            and will punish Jacob according to his ways;

                        he will repay him according to his deeds.

3 Even in the womb he grabbed his brother by the heel,

            and as an adult he struggled with God.

4 He wrestled with the angel and won;

            he wept and pleaded for his favor.

    He found him at Bethel,

            and spoke with him there--

5 the LORD, the God of hosts;

            the LORD is his memorial.

6 You must turn back to your God;

            hold on to loyal love and justice,

                        and wait continually for your God.

7 Instead he is like a merchant,

            with deceptive scales in his hand;

                        he loves to cheat.

8 Ephraim said, "I am rich, I have become wealthy.

            In all my pursuit of wealth

                        no one has been able to detect anything wrong or sinful."

9 But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt;

            I will again make you live in tents,

                        as in the days of the solemn feast.

10 I spoke to the prophets,

            I multiplied visions,

                        and through the prophets gave symbolic parables.

11 Are there idols in Gilead?

            They are absolutely worthless!

     Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

            Their altars are like heaps of stone in a plowed field.

12 Jacob fled into the land of Aram;

            Israel served for a wife,

                        to earn a wife he guarded sheep.

13 By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up out of Egypt,

            and by a prophet he was guarded.

14 Ephraim has bitterly provoked to anger;

            he will be held accountable for his bloody crimes,

                        and his Lord will repay him for his scornful abuse.


                                          DASV: Hosea 13

1 When Ephraim spoke,

            there was trembling.

    He was exalted in Israel;

            but when he offended by worshipping Baal, he died.

2 Even now they sin more and more.

            They have made metal images for themselves;

   idols of silver built according to their own understanding,

            all of them the work of the craftsmen.

   They say of them, "Let those who sacrifice, kiss the calves."

3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

            and like the dew that quickly vanishes,

    like chaff blown away from the threshing floor by a whirlwind,

            and like smoke disappearing through an open window.

4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt;

            you are not to acknowledge any god but me,

                        for there is no savior besides me.

5 I cared for you in the wilderness,

            in the land of great desert.

6 But after they had grazed they were filled;

            then their heart became proud;

                        therefore they forgot me.

7 So I am like a lion to them;

            like a leopard I will lurk by the road.

8 I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs,

            and will tear their hearts out.

    I will devour them like a lioness;

            like a wild beast would tear them to pieces.


9
You are about to be destroyed, O Israel,

            because you are against me, your help.

10 Where now is your king,

            that he may save you in all your cities?

   Where are your leaders, of whom you demanded,

            "Give me a king and princes"?

11 I have given you a king in my anger,

            and took him away in my wrath.

12 The guilt of Ephraim is packed away;

            his sin is stored up.

13 The pain of childbirth will come on him.

            He is an unwise son;

                        for at the right time he does not appear

                        at the opening of the womb.


14
Should I ransom them from the power of Sheol?

            Should I redeem them from death?

    O death, where are your plagues?

            O Sheol, where is your destruction?

    Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.

15 Though he is fruitful among his brothers,

             a desert east wind will come,

                        the breath of the LORD blowing in from the wilderness;

     his spring will dry up

            and his fountain will be parched;

                        it will plunder his treasury of its valuables.

16 Samaria will bear her guilt,

            for she rebelled against her God.

    They will fall by the sword;

            their infants will be dashed in pieces,

                        and their pregnant women ripped open.


                                          DASV: Hosea 14

1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God;

            for you have fallen because of your sins.

2 Take with you words,

            and return to the LORD.

   Say to him, "Take away all iniquity,

            receive us graciously,

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

3 Assyria will not save us;

            we will not ride on war-horses;

   or say again to the work of our hands,

            'You are our gods,'

    for in you alone the orphan finds mercy."


4
I will heal their backsliding;

            I will love them freely,

    for my anger has turned away from them.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

            he will blossom like a lily,

   and put down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon.

6 His shoots will sprout,

            and his beauty like the olive tree,

                        and his fragrance like the cedar of Lebanon.

7 They who return will live under his shadow.

            They will grow up like the grain,

                        and blossom like the vine;

     its fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 O Ephraim, what more do I have to do with idols?

    It is I who answers and cares for him.

            I am like an evergreen cypress tree;

                        your fruit comes from me.


9
Who is wise, that he may understand these things?

            Prudent, that he may know them?

   For the ways of the LORD are right,

            and the just will walk in them,

            but rebels will stumble in them.