1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness: Behold, days are coming upon you when they will carry you away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks.
3And you will go out through the breaches, each woman straight ahead, and you will be flung toward Harmon — declaration of Yahweh.
4Come to Bethel and rebel; to Gilgal, multiply rebellion! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
5Burn a thank offering from what is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, announce them! For so you love to do, O sons of Israel — declaration of the Lord Yahweh.
6And I too gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places — yet you did not return to me, declaration of Yahweh.
7And I too withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain would dry up.
8So two or three cities would stagger to one city to drink water, but they would not be satisfied — yet you did not return to me, declaration of Yahweh.
9I struck you with blight and mildew; the many of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured — yet you did not return to me, declaration of Yahweh.
10I sent among you a plague in the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with the capture of your horses; and I made the stench of your camps rise up, even into your nostrils — yet you did not return to me, declaration of Yahweh.
11I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the burning — yet you did not return to me, declaration of Yahweh.
12Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13For behold, the one who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to humankind what his thought is, who makes the dawn into darkness and treads upon the heights of the earth — Yahweh, God of hosts, is his name.
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