UST HOS Chapter 14

14 You people of Israel, begin again to worship and obey Yahweh your God.

You must do this because terrible things are happening to you because you have been sinning.

2 Decide what you will say, and determine that you will obey Yahweh.

Say to him, “Please forgive us for all of the wrong things that we have done,

and accept what we will do now to please you,

and please accept what we say as we promise to obey you instead of sacrifices of animals.

3 We know that Assyria will not save us

and it will not benefit us to ride on war horses.

We will never again say, ‘You are our gods’

to the idols that we have made.

You, Yahweh, are the one who acts mercifully toward orphans.”

4 Yahweh says, “When they say that to me, I will forgive them for turning away from me;

I will love them generously,

because I will no longer be angry with them.

5 I will refresh the people of Israel

just as dew refreshes the ground.

They will prosper and become beautiful

and they will become as strong and stable as the trees of Lebanon.

6 They will become widely influential;

they will be as majestic as an olive tree,

and they will be as delightful as the aroma of the cedar trees in Lebanon.”

7 The people of Israel will come back and live under Yahweh’s protection.

They will grow abundant grain again;

they will become as productive as a vineyard.

People will speak well of Yahweh, like they speak well of the fine wine from Lebanon.

8 Yahweh says, “People of Ephraim, I want nothing more to do with idols!

I am the one who responds to you and watches over you.

I am the source of everything good in your life, like a tree

that always stays green and always produces fruit.”

9 Anyone who is truly wise should understand these things that I have written.

Anyone who has good sense must be sure that he knows them.

Because what Yahweh tells us to do is right,

and people who do what is right will obey him,

but people who rebel against him will ruin themselves by not doing what he tells us to do.