Read the Bible

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!"

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!

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.