Hosea

Hosea, chapter 14, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 14 New English Translation

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

   1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sin has been your downfall!
   2 Return to the LORD and repent! Say to him: "Completely forgive our iniquity; accept our penitential prayer, that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.
   3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not ride warhorses. We will never again say, 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made. For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!"

Divine Promise to Relent from Judgment and to Restore Blessings

   4 "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger will turn away from them.
   5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily, he will send down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon.
   6 His young shoots will grow; his splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
   7 People will reside again in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
   8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like a luxuriant cypress tree; your fruitfulness comes from me!

Concluding Exhortation

   9 Who is wise? Let him discern these things! Who is discerning? Let him understand them! For the ways of the LORD are right; the godly walk in them, but in them the rebellious stumble.

King James Version

   1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
   2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
   3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth 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 unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
   6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
   7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
   8 Ephraim shall 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 thy fruit found.
   9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.