Hosea 14 - Healed and Blossoming Again
Hosea's book ends with a plea to return and a promise of healing love.
After the warnings of judgment and death in Hosea 13, the book closes with a direct plea: 'O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.'
\\13:16\\Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
\\14:1\\O Israel, return to the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity.
\\14:2\\Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
\\14:3\\Ashur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
\\14:4\\I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him.
\\14:5\\I will be as the dew to Israel: he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
\\14:6\\His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
\\14:7\\They that dwell under his shade shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent of it shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
\\14:8\\Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir-tree. From me is thy fruit found.
\\14:9\\Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.