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 shekel¹ 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.