“Hear this word, ayou cows of Bashan,
who are bon the mountain of Samaria,
cwho oppress the poor, cwho crush the needy,
who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2 aThe Lord God has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
bwhen they shall take you away with hooks,
beven the last of you with fishhooks.
3 aAnd you shall go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead;
and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the Lord.
4 a“Come to Bethel, and transgress;
to bGilgal, and multiply transgression;
abring your csacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of athat which is leavened,
and proclaim bfreewill offerings, publish them;
cfor so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
declares the Lord God.
Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and alack of bread in all your places,
byet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also awithheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
bI would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities awould wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
byet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 a“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees bthe locust devoured;
cyet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence aafter the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and bcarried away your horses,
and cI made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
dyet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
aas when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were bas a brand plucked out of the burning;
cyet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, ahe who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and bdeclares to man what is his thought,
cwho makes the morning darkness,
and dtreads on the heights of the earth—
ethe Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!