Death to Samaria, that has provoked her God’s anger! Death at the sword’s point; children dashed headlong, ripped open the womb!

Come back, Israel, to the Lord thy God; it is sin that has caused thy overthrow.

Come back, men of Israel, with a plea ready on your lips: Pardon all our guilt, and take the best we have in return;✻ the praises we utter shall be our victims now.

No longer we will find refuge in Assyrian help, mount our men on horses from Egypt;✻ no longer will we give the name of gods to the things our own hands have made; thou art the friend of the friendless who trust in thee.

I will bring healing to their crushed spirits;✻ in free mercy I will give them back my love; my vengeance has passed them by.

I will be morning dew, to make Israel grow as the lilies grow, strike roots deep as the forest of Lebanon.

Those branches shall spread, it shall become fair as the olive, fragrant as Lebanon cedar.

None that dwells under the protection of that name but shall come back to me; corn shall be theirs in plenty, and they will grow like one of their own vineyards, famed as the vintage of Lebanon itself.

The false gods of Ephraim are forgotten; mine to answer his prayer and tend him, ever-green as a fir-tree; from me all thy increase comes.

All this the wise discern, the thoughtful understand; straight paths the Lord has shewn us for his friends to walk in; who leaves them shall stumble to his ruin.