1Samaria shall meet her punishment; for she hath rebelled against her God: by the sword shall they fall; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women shall be ripped up. 2Return, O Israel, even unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast stumbled through thy iniquity. 3Take with you swords, and return to the Lord: say unto him, "Pardon all our iniquity, and accept our return to good; and let us repay the steers of sacrifice with the prayer of our lips. 4Asshur shall not help us; upon horses will we not ride: and we will no more say, Ye are our gods, to the work of our hands; for in thee alone the fatherless obtaineth mercy." 5I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them. 6I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall bloom as the lily; and he shall strike his roots as the forests of Lebanon. 7His suckers shall spread out, and his beauty shall be as that of the olive-tree, and his smell as that of the Lebanon. 8They shall return that sat under his shade; they shall revive as corn, and bloom as the vine: the scent of which shall be as that of the wine of Lebanon. 9Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will observe him; I will be to him like a green fir-tree; through me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, that he may understand these things? intelligent, that he may know them? for righteous are the ways of the Lord; and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors will stumble through them.