Israel Will Not Return
4 Listen to this message, you rich women on the Mountain of Samaria.
You take things from the poor
and crush people who are in need.
You tell your husbands,
“Bring us money so we can drink!”
2 The Lord God has promised this:
“It is certain that I am a holy God.
So it is certain that the time will come
when some of you will be taken away by hooks.
The rest of you will be taken away with fishhooks.
3 You will go straight out of the city
through holes in the walls.
And you will be thrown on the garbage dump,” says the Lord.
4 “Go to the city of Bethel and sin.
Go to Gilgal and sin even more.
Offer your sacrifices every morning.
Bring one-tenth of your crops on the third day.
5 Offer bread made with yeast as a sacrifice to show your thanks.
And brag about the offerings you bring to show thanks to the Lord.
Brag about these things, Israelites.
This is what you love to do,” says the Lord God.
6 “I did not give you any food to eat.
There was not enough food in any of your towns.
But you did not come back to me,” says the Lord.
7 “I held back the rain from you
three months before harvest time.
Then I let it rain on one city
but not on another.
Rain fell on one field,
but another field got none and dried up.
8 People weak from thirst went from town to town for water.
But they could not get enough water to drink.
But you still did not come back to me,” says the Lord.
9 “I made your crops die from disease and mildew.
I destroyed your gardens and your vineyards.
Locusts ate your fig trees and olive trees.
But you still did not come back to me,” says the Lord.
10 “I sent disasters against you,
as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with swords.
I also killed your horses.
I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies.
But you still did not come back to me,” says the Lord.
11 “I destroyed some of you
as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick pulled from a fire.
But you still have not come back to me,” says the Lord.
12 “So this is what I will do to you, Israel.
And because I will do this to you,
get ready to meet your God, Israel.”
13 He is the one who makes the mountains.
He creates the wind.
He makes his thoughts known to man.
He changes the dawn into darkness.
He walks over the mountains of the earth.
His name is the Lord God of heaven’s armies.