1Return, Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity.2Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity and take good, and we will repay the fruit of our lips."3Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on a horse. And we will not say anymore, "Our God," to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds compassion.4I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.5I will be like dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily; he will strike his roots like Lebanon.6His sucklings will go, and he will be like an olive tree of glory to him, and fragrance like Lebanon.7They will return, those who dwell in his shade; they will live on grain and blossom like a vine, his remembrance like wine of Lebanon.8Ephraim, what more has to do with me with idols? I have answered and I will watch over him. I am like a fresh cypress; from me your fruit is found.9Who is wise and will understand these things? The discerning will know them. For the ways of the LORD are upright, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.