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1Return, Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. 2Take words of repentance with you, and return to the Lordyour God. Say to him: our iniquity, that which is good, instead of sacrificing bulls, we offer our praise. 3Assyria will not save us, nor Egyptian warhorses, and we will no more call the work of our hands our gods. For in you orphan Israel finds mercy. 4‘I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, now that my anger is turned away from them, 5I will be as dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, he will plant his roots like the cedars of Lebanon, 6his saplings will spread out, his beauty will be like that of the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. 7People will return and dwell in my shade, will bring life to new grain. will sprout like the vine, and their renown will be like that of the wine of Lebanon. 8Ephraim – what have I to do with idols! It is I the Lord who respond to him and look after him. I am like an evergreen cypress, from me is your fruit found. 9Whoever is wise, him discern these things, him perceive them; For the Lord’s ways are straight, and the righteous walk in them, but the wicked stumble in them.