Osee

Chapter 14

  1. 1

    Death to Samaria, that has provoked her God’s anger! Death at the sword’s point; children dashed headlong, ripped open the womb!

  2. 2

    Come back, Israel, to the Lord thy God; it is sin that has caused thy overthrow.

  3. 3

    Come back, men of Israel, with a plea ready on your lips: Pardon all our guilt, and take the best we have in return;1 the praises we utter shall be our victims now.

  4. 4

    No longer we will find refuge in Assyrian help, mount our men on horses from Egypt;2 no longer will we give the name of gods to the things our own hands have made; thou art the friend of the friendless who trust in thee.

  5. 5

    I will bring healing to their crushed spirits;3 in free mercy I will give them back my love; my vengeance has passed them by.

  6. 6

    I will be morning dew, to make Israel grow as the lilies grow, strike roots deep as the forest of Lebanon.

  7. 7

    Those branches shall spread, it shall become fair as the olive, fragrant as Lebanon cedar.

  8. 8

    None that dwells under the protection of that name but shall come back to me; corn shall be theirs in plenty, and they will grow like one of their own vineyards, famed as the vintage of Lebanon itself.

  9. 9

    The false gods of Ephraim are forgotten; mine to answer his prayer and tend him, ever-green as a fir-tree; from me all thy increase comes.

  10. 10

    All this the wise discern, the thoughtful understand; straight paths the Lord has shewn us for his friends to walk in; who leaves them shall stumble to his ruin.