O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and {Or, receive us graciously}accept that which is good: so will we render as bullocks the offering of our lips.
Assyria 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.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the grain, and blossom as the vine: {Or, his memorial}the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
{Or, O Ephraim, what &c.}Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him: I am like a green fir-tree; from me is thy fruit found.
Who is wise, that he may understand these things? prudent, that he may know them? for the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein.
Querverweise zu Hosea 14,3 Hos 14,3
When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to {Or, a king that should contend}king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; forasmuch as Jehovah hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
{Or, O Ephraim, what &c.}Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him: I am like a green fir-tree; from me is thy fruit found.
Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
If thou afflict them at all, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without {Hebrew: heart.}understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;But we will make mention of the name of Jehovah our God.
For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be {Or, remembered}mentioned by their name.
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest {Or, travail and grief}mischief and spite, {Or, to take it into thy hand}to requite it with thy hand:The {Or, hapless}helpless committeth himself unto thee;Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.
For they are gone up to Assyria, like a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired {Hebrew: loves.}lovers.
They are bowed down and fallen;But we are risen, and stand upright.
For they shall be ashamed of the {Or, terebinths}oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows,Is God in his holy habitation.
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he continually multiplieth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
A horse is a vain thing for safety;Neither doth he deliver any by his great power.
In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Jehovah preserveth the sojourners;He upholdeth the fatherless and widow;But the way of the wicked he {Or, maketh crooked}turneth upside down.
And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on Jehovah thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand.
that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to {Or, flee to the stronghold of Pharaoh}strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be {Or, expiated}forgiven, and this is all the fruit {Or, to take away}of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more.
Remove not the ancient landmark;And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
Put not your trust in princes,Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
but ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
For their Redeemer is strong;He will plead their cause against thee.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah my God.
Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart {Hebrew: soundeth.}yearneth for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.
Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter? for Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth: A woman shall encompass a man.
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and when Jehovah shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them {Or, with a slight change of text, from all their backslidings}out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
I will not leave you {Or, orphans}desolate: I come unto you.
Now therefore, I pray thee, {Or, make a wager with}give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
And he said unto me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, and by the dead bodies of their kings {Or, according to another reading, in their death.}in their high places;
in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was but the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.
Now let them put away their whoredom, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots:
and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strongholds.
And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
and I will cut off thy graven images and thy { Or, obelisks}pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands;
and I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee; and I will destroy thy {Or, enemies}cities.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.