CHAPTER 4
Hear
this
word,
you cows
of Bashan
on Mount
Samaria,
you women who oppress
the poor
and crush
the needy,
who say
to your husbands,
“Bring us
more to drink.”
The Lord
GOD
has sworn
by His holiness:
“Behold,
the days
are coming
when you will be taken away
with hooks,
and your posterity
with
fishhooks.
You will go out
through broken walls,
each one
straight ahead of her,
and you will be cast out
toward Harmon,”
declares
the LORD.
“Go
to Bethel
and transgress;
rebel
even more
at Gilgal!
Bring
your sacrifices
every morning,
your tithes
every three
days.
Offer
leavened bread
as a thank offering,
and loudly
proclaim
your freewill offerings,
for
that is what
you children
of Israel
love to do!”
declares
the LORD
GOD.
“I
beset
all
your cities
with cleanness
of teeth
and all
your towns
with lack
of bread,
yet you did not
return
to Me.”
declares
the LORD.
“I
also
withheld
the rain
from you
when the harvest was
three
months
away.
I sent rain
on
one
city
but withheld
it
from
another.
One
field
received rain
while one
without
rain
withered.
People staggered
from city
to
city
for water
to drink,
but they were not
satisfied;
yet you have not
returned
to Me,”
declares
the LORD.
“I struck
you with blight
and mildew
in your growing
gardens
and vineyards;
the locust
devoured
your fig
and olive trees,
yet you did not
return
to Me,”
declares
the LORD.
“I sent
plagues
among you
like those
of Egypt;
I killed
your young men
with the sword,
along with
your captured
horses.
I filled
your nostrils
with the stench
of your camp,
yet you did not
return
to Me,”
declares
the LORD.
“Some of you I overthrew
as I overthrew
Sodom
and Gomorrah,
and you were
like a firebrand
snatched
from a blaze,
yet you did not
return
to Me,”
declares
the LORD.
“Therefore,
that is what
I will do
to you,
O Israel,
and since
I will do
this
to you,
prepare
to meet
your God,
O Israel!
For
behold,
He who forms
the mountains,
who creates
the wind,
and reveals
His thoughts
to man,
the One who turns
the dawn
to darkness
and strides
on
the heights
of the earth,
the LORD,
the God
of Hosts,
is His name.”