1Return, O Israel, even unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast stumbled through thy iniquity. 2Take with you swords, and return to the Lord: say unto him, "Pardon all our iniquity, and accept our return to good; and let us repay the steers of sacrifice with the prayer of our lips. 3Asshur shall not help us; upon horses will we not ride: and we will no more say, Ye are our gods, to the work of our hands; for in thee alone the fatherless obtaineth mercy." 4I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them. 5I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall bloom as the lily; and he shall strike his roots as the forests of Lebanon. 6His suckers shall spread out, and his beauty shall be as that of the olive–tree, and his smell as that of the Lebanon. 7They shall return that sat under his shade; they shall revive as corn, and bloom as the vine: the scent of which shall be as that of the wine of Lebanon. 8Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will observe him; I will be to him like a green fir–tree; through me is thy fruit found. 9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? intelligent, that he may know them? for righteous are the ways of the Lord; and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors will stumble through them.