| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sin has been your downfall! | 1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sins have brought you down. |
| 2Return 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. | 2Bring your confessions, and return to the LORD. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises. |
| 3Assyria 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!" | 3Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, ‘You are our gods.’ No, in you alone do the orphans find mercy.” |
| 4"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger will turn away from them. | 4The LORD says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. |
| 5I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily, he will send down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon. | 5I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars in Lebanon. |
| 6His young shoots will grow; his splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. | 6Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees, as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon. |
| 7People 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. | 7My people will again live under my shade. They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. |
| 8O 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! | 8“O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.” |
| 9Who 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. | 9Let those who are wise understand these things. Let those with discernment listen carefully. The paths of the LORD are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them. But in those paths sinners stumble and fall. |
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