Israel has not returned to God
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!’
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
‘The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.[a]
3 You will each go straight out
through breaches in the wall,
and you will be cast out towards Harmon,’[b]
declares the Lord.
4 ‘Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years.[c]
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank-offering
and brag about your freewill offerings –
boast about them, you Israelites,
for this is what you love to do,’
declares the Sovereign Lord.
6 ‘I gave you empty stomachs in every city
and lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.
7 ‘I also withheld rain from you
when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
another had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water
but did not get enough to drink,
yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.
9 ‘Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.
10 ‘I sent plagues among you
as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.
11 ‘I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.
12 ‘Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you, Israel,
prepare to meet your God.’
13 He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth –
the Lord God Almighty is his name.