4TH CHAPTER

The Lord Will Punish the Women of Samaria

1  Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria. 

You women oppress the poor and abuse the needy. 

You say to your husbands, “Get some wine! Let’s drink!” 

2  The Almighty Lord has taken an oath on his holiness: 

Surely, the time is going to come 

when you will be taken away on hooks, 

and the rest of you on fishhooks. 

3  Each of you will leave ⸤the city⸥ 

through breaks in the wall, one woman ahead of another. 

You will be thrown into a garbage dump. 

The Lord declares this. 

4  Go to Bethel and sin. 

Go to Gilgal and sin even more. 

Bring your sacrifices every morning. 

Bring a tenth of your income every three days. 

5  Burn bread as a thank offering. 

Brag and boast about your freewill offerings. 

This is what you people of Israel love to do. 

The Almighty Lord declares this. 

6  I left you with nothing to eat in any of your cities. 

I left you with no food in your entire land. 

And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord. 

7  I stopped the rain from falling 

three months before the harvest. 

I sent rain on one city and not on another. 

One field had rain. 

Another field had none and dried up. 

8  So people from two or three cities staggered 

as they walked to another city in order to get a drink of water. 

But they couldn’t get enough. 

And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord. 

9  I struck your ⸤crops⸥ with blight and mildew. 

Locusts repeatedly devoured your gardens, vineyards, 

fig trees, and olive trees. 

And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord. 

10  I sent plagues on you as I did to Egypt. 

With swords I killed your best young men along with your captured horses. 

I made the stench from your camps fill your noses. 

And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord. 

11  I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 

You were like a burning log snatched from a fire. 

And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord. 

12  This is what I will do to you, Israel. 

Prepare to meet your God. 

This is what I will do to you, Israel! 

13  God forms the mountains and creates the wind. 

He reveals his thoughts to humans. 

He makes dawn and dusk ⸤appear⸥. 

He walks on the high places of the earth. 

His name is the Lord God of Armies.