14:1  O ISRAEL, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled {and} fallen, [visited by calamity] due to your iniquity.

14:2  Take with you words and return to the Lord. Say to Him, Take away all {our} iniquity; accept what is good {and} receive us graciously; so will we render [our thanks] as bullocks [to be sacrificed] {and} pay the confession of our lips.

14:3  Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands [idols], You are our gods. For in You [O Lord] the fatherless find love, pity, {and} mercy.

14:4  I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from [Israel].

14:5  I will be like the dew {and} the night mist to Israel; he shall grow {and} blossom like the lily and cast forth his roots like [the sturdy evergreens of] Lebanon.

14:6  His suckers {and} shoots shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like [the cedars and aromatic shrubs of] Lebanon.

14:7  They that dwell under his shade shall return; they shall revive like the grain and blossom like the vine; the scent of it shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

14:8  Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered [him] and will regard {and} watch over him; I am like a green fir {or} cypress tree; with Me is the fruit found [which is to nourish you].

14:9  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 [uncompromisingly] just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall stumble {and} fall in them.