_Return, O Israel, to Jehovah thy God, for thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity. Take with you words_[656] _and return unto Jehovah. Say unto Him, Remove iniquity altogether, and take good, so will we render the calves_[657] _of our lips_; confessions, vows, these are the sacrificial offerings God delights in. Which vows are now registered:-- _Asshur shall not save us;_ _We will not ride upon horses_ (from Egypt); _And we will say no more, "O our God," to the work of our hands:_ _For in Thee the fatherless findeth a father's pity._ Alien help, whether in the protection of Assyria or the cavalry which Pharaoh sends in return for Israel's homage; alien gods, whose idols we have ourselves made,--we abjure them all, for we remember how Thou didst promise to show a father's love to the people whom Thou didst name, for their mother's sins, Lo-Ruhamah, the Unfathered. Then God replies:-- _I will heal their backsliding,_ _I will love them freely:_ _For Mine anger is turned away from them._ _I will be as the dew unto Israel:_ _He shall blossom as the lily,_ _And strike his roots_ deep _as Lebanon;_ _His branches shall spread,_ _And his beauty shall be as the olive-tree,_ _And his smell as Lebanon--_ smell of clear mountain air with the scent of the pines upon it. The figure in the end of ver. 6 seems forced to some critics, who have proposed various emendations, such as "like the fast-rooted trees of Lebanon,"[658] but any one who has seen how the mountain himself rises from great roots, cast out across the land like those of some giant oak, will not feel it necessary to mitigate the metaphor. The prophet now speaks:-- _They shall return and dwell in His shadow._ _They shall live well-watered as a garden,_ _Till they flourish like the vine,_ _And be fragrant like the wine of Lebanon._[659] God speaks:-- _Ephraim, what has he_[660] _to do any more with idols!_ _I have spoken_ for him, _and I will look after him._ _I am like an ever-green fir;_ _From Me is thy fruit found._ This version is not without its difficulties; but the alternative that God is addressed and Ephraim is the speaker--_Ephraim_ says, _What have I to do any more with idols? I answer and look to Him: I am like a green fir-tree; from me is Thy fruit found_--has even greater difficulties,[661] although it avoids the unusual comparison of the Deity with a tree. The difficulties of both interpretations may be overcome by dividing the verse between God and the people:-- _Ephraim! what has he to do any more with idols:_ _I have spoken_ for him, _and will look after him._