4 “Hear this word, hyou cows of Bashan,

who are ion the mountain of Samaria,

jwho oppress the poor, jwho crush the needy,

who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’

2  kThe Lord God has sworn by his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

lwhen they shall take you away with hooks,

leven the last of you with fishhooks.

3  mAnd you shall go out through the breaches,

each one straight ahead;

and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”

declares the Lord.

4  n“Come to Bethel, and transgress;

to oGilgal, and multiply transgression;

nbring your psacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

5  offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of qthat which is leavened,

and proclaim rfreewill offerings, publish them;

sfor 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 tlack of bread in all your places,

uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

7  “I also vwithheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

wI 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 xwould wander to another city

to drink water, and would not be satisfied;

uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

9  y“I struck you with blight and mildew;

your many gardens and your vineyards,

your fig trees and your olive trees zthe locust devoured;

uyet 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,1

and cI made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

11  “I overthrew some of you,

das when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were eas a brand2 plucked out of the burning;

uyet 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, fhe who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and gdeclares to man what is his thought,

hwho makes the morning darkness,

and itreads on the heights of the earth—

jthe Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!