[1] Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of
Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who
say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink. [2] The Lord God
has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will
take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks. [3] And you
will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her,
and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord. [4] Come to Beth-el and do
evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your
offerings every morning and your tenths every three days: [5] Let that
which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free
offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of
Israel, says the Lord. [6] But in all your towns I have kept food from your
teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you
have not come back to me, says the Lord. [7] And I have kept back the rain
from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent
rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and
the part where there was no rain became a waste. [8] So two or three towns
went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and
still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. [9] I have sent
destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your
gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has
been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
[10] I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your
young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the
evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not
come back to me, says the Lord. [11] And I have sent destruction among you,
as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a
burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to
me, says the Lord. [12] So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and
because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O
Israel. [13] For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind,
giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is
walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is
his name.
