¹Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”

• ²The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold,
• “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks,
• and the last of you with fish hooks.

• ³You will go out at the breaks in the wall,
• everyone straight before her;
• and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh.

• ⁴“Go to Bethel, and sin;
• to Gilgal, and sin more.

• Bring your sacrifices every morning,
• your tithes every three days,
• ⁵offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
• and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them:
• for this pleases you, you children of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh.

• ⁶“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
• and lack of bread in every town;
• yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

• ⁷“I also have withheld the rain from you,
• when there were yet three months to the harvest;
• and I caused it to rain on one city,
• and caused it not to rain on another city.

• One place was rained on,
• and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.

• ⁸So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water,
• and were not satisfied:
• yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

• ⁹“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards;
• and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured:
• yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

• ¹⁰“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt.
• I have slain your young men with the sword,
• and have carried away your horses;
• and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,
• yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

• ¹¹“I have overthrown some of you,
• as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
• and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire;
• yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

• ¹²“Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel;
• because I will do this to you,
• prepare to meet your God, Israel.

• ¹³For, behold, he who forms the mountains,
• and creates the wind,
• and declares to man what is his thought;
• who makes the morning darkness,
• and treads on the high places of the earth:
• Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”