Hosea 14
1 Samaria shall be utterly destroyed:
for she has resisted her God; they shall fall by the sword, and their
sucklings shall be dashed against the ground, and their women with child
ripped up.
2 Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy
God; for the people have fallen through thine iniquities.
3 Take with you words, and turn to the
Lord your God: speak to him, that ye may not receive
the reward of unrighteousness, but that ye may
receive good things: and we will render in return the fruit of our lips.
4 Assur shall never save us; we will
not mount on horseback; we will no longer say to the works of our hands, Our
gods. He who is in thee shall pity the orphan.
5 I will restore their dwellings, I
will love them truly: for he has turned away my wrath from him.
6 I will be as dew to Israel: he shall
bloom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Libanus.
7 His branches shall spread, and he
shall be as a fruitful olive, and his smell shall be as
the smell of Libanus.
8 They shall return, and dwell under
his shadow: they shall live and be satisfied with corn, and he shall flower as
a vine: his memorial shall be to Ephraim as the wine of Libanus.
9 What has he
to do any more with idols? I have afflicted him, and I will strengthen him: I
am as a leafy juniper tree. From me is thy fruit found.
10 Who is wise, and will understand
these things? or prudent, and will know them? for the ways of the Lord are
straight, and the righteous shall walk in them: but the ungodly shall fall
therein.