¹ O Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity. ² Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. ³ Asshur will not save us; we will not ride on horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in you the fatherless finds mercy. ⁴ I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. ⁵ I will be as the dew to Israel: he will grow as the lily, and cast forward his roots as Lebanon. ⁶ His branches will spread, and his beauty will be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. ⁷ Those dwell under his shadow will return; they will revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent of it will be as the wine of Lebanon. ⁸ Ephraim will say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is your fruit found. ⁹ Who is wise, and he will understand these things? prudent, and he will know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just will walk in them: but the transgressors will fall in it.