Hosea 14

1 Samaria will be wiped out because she resisted her God. They will fall by the sword; their nursing infants will be dashed to the ground, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

2 Return, Israel, to the Lord your God, because you have grown weak through your wrongdoing.

3 Take words with you and return to the Lord your God. Speak to him so that you do not receive wrongdoing but receive good things:

“We will repay you with the fruit of our lips.

4 Assyria will never save us. We will not ride horses, and we will no longer call the works of our hands ‘Our gods.’ The one within you will have mercy on the fatherless.”

5 “I will heal their homes and love them openly, because my anger has turned away from them.

6 I will be like dew to Israel. He will bloom like a lily and send out roots like Lebanon.

7 His branches will spread. He will be like a fruitful olive tree, and his fragrance will be like Lebanon.

8 They will return and sit under his shelter. They will live and be filled with grain. His memorial will bloom like a vine, like the wine of Lebanon.

9 What does Ephraim have to do with idols any longer? I brought him low, and I will strengthen him. I am like a leafy juniper tree; your fruit is found in me.”

10 Who is wise and will understand these things? Who is discerning and will know them? The Lord’s roads are straight; the righteous will walk in them, but the ungodly will grow weak in them.