14 Yisrael, return to your God Yahweh,

because you’ve stumbled as a result of your iniquity.

2 Prepare what you’re going to say and return to Yahweh.

Tell him, “Take away all our disobedience and accept what is good,

so that we can offer praise from our lips.

3 Assyria can’t save us.

We won’t ride on war-horses.

Nor will we say, ‘Our God,’ again to anything that we’ve made ourselves

because this fatherless nation finds compassion in you.”

4 “I will heal their waywardness.

I’ll love them freely

because my anger has turned away from them.

5 To Yisrael, I will be like the dew.

He will blossom like a lily flower

≈and take root like a cedar tree in Lebanon.

6 His shoots will sprout.

His beauty will be like that of olive trees,

≈and his fragrance like the cedars in Lebanon.

7 Those who live in Yisrael’s shadow will return.

They will revive like the grain

and blossom like the grapevine.

His fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 Efraim, what more do I have to do with idols?

It’s me who answer and look after him.

I’m like a flourishing cypress tree—

your fruit comes from me.”