4  “Hear this word, you cows ^tof Bashan,

who are on the ^umountain of Samaria,

who oppress the ^vpoor, who crush the needy,

who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’

2  The Lord God has sworn ^wby his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

when they shall take you away with hooks,

even the last of you with ^xfishhooks.

3  And you shall go out through the breaches,

each one straight ahead;

and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”

declares the Lord.

4  “Come to ^yBethel, and transgress;

to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

5  offer a ^zsacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”

declares the Lord God.

6  “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

and lack of bread in all your places,

yet you did not ^areturn to me,”

declares the Lord.

7  “I also ^bwithheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city,

and send no rain on another city;

one field would have rain,

and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

8  so two or three cities would wander to another city

to drink water, ^cand would not be satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

9  “I struck you with ^dblight and mildew;

your many gardens and your vineyards,

your fig trees and your olive trees the ^elocust devoured;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

10  “I sent among you a pestilence ^fafter the manner of Egypt;

^gI killed your young men with the sword,

and carried away your horses,¹

and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

11  “I overthrew some of you,

^has when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were as a brand² plucked out of the burning;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

12  “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

13  For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and declares to man what is his thought,

who ⁱmakes the morning darkness,

and ^jtreads on the heights of the earth—

^kthe Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

2  “Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

“The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

^m“Seek me and live;

5  but do not seek ⁿBethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to ^oBeersheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into ^pexile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

6  Seek the Lord and live,

^qlest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

7  O you who ^rturn justice to wormwood¹

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8  He who made the ^sPleiades and Orion,

and ^tturns deep darkness into the morning

and ^udarkens the day into night,

^vwho calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

^wthe Lord is his name;

9  who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10  They hate him who ^xreproves in the gate,

and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

11  Therefore because you trample on² the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

^yyou have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

^zyou have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

12  For I know how many are your transgressions

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a ^abribe,

and turn aside the needy in the gate.

13  Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,

^bfor it is an evil time.

14  Seek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

as you have said.

15  ^cHate evil, and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

^dit may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

“In all the squares there shall be wailing,

and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They shall call the ^efarmers to mourning

and to wailing ^fthose who are skilled in lamentation,

17  and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for ^gI will pass through your midst,”

says the Lord.

18  Woe to you who desire the ^hday of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

ⁱIt is darkness, and not light,

19  ^jas if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him,

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

20  Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?

21  ^k“I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

^lI will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

23  Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

24  But let ^mjustice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

6  “Woe to those who are ^oat ease in Zion,

and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,

the notable men of the first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel comes!

2  Pass over to Calneh, and see,

and from there go to ^pHamath the great;

then go down to ^qGath of the Philistines.

^rAre you better than these kingdoms?

Or is their territory greater than your territory,

3  O ^syou who put far away the day of disaster

and bring near the seat of violence?

4  “Woe to those who lie on ^tbeds of ivory

and stretch themselves out on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock

and calves from the midst of the stall,

5  who sing idle songs to the sound of the ^uharp

and ^vlike David invent for themselves instruments of music,

6  who ^wdrink wine in bowls

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

7  Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into ^xexile,

and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

“I abhor the ^zpride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds,

and I will ^adeliver up the city and all that is in it.”

11  For behold, the Lord commands,

and the ^dgreat house shall be struck down into fragments,

and the little house into bits.

12  Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow there¹ with oxen?

But you have turned ^ejustice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood²—

13  you who rejoice in Lo-debar,³

who say, “Have we not by our own strength

captured Karnaim⁴ for ourselves?”

14  “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,

O house of Israel,” declares the Lord, the God of hosts;

“and they shall oppress you ^ffrom Lebo-hamath

to the Brook of the Arabah.”

“O Lord God, please forgive!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

3  The Lord ^hrelented concerning this:

“It shall not be,” said the Lord.

“O Lord God, please cease!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

6  The Lord relented concerning this:

“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them;

9  the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against the house of ^kJeroboam with the sword.”

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into ⁿexile

away from his land.’”

“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

“The end¹ has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

3  The songs of the temple² shall become wailings³ in that day,”

declares the Lord God.

“So many dead bodies!”

“They are thrown everywhere!”

^s“Silence!”

4  Hear this, you who ^ttrample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5  saying, “When will the ^unew moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And the Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make the ephah small and the shekel⁴ great

and deal deceitfully with ^vfalse balances,

6  that we may ^wbuy the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7  The Lord has sworn by the ^xpride of Jacob:

“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

8  Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

and all of it ^yrise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9  “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

^z“I will make the sun go down at noon

and ^adarken the earth in broad daylight.

10  I will turn your feasts into mourning

and ^ball your songs into lamentation;

^cI will bring sackcloth on every waist

and ^dbaldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning ^efor an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11  “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

but ^fof hearing the words of the Lord.

12  They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

13  “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall faint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As the Way of ^gBeersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”