4  “Hear this word, ^hyou cows of Bashan,

who are ⁱon the mountain of Samaria,

^jwho oppress the poor, ^jwho crush the needy,

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

2  ^kThe Lord God has sworn by his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

^lwhen they shall take you away with hooks,

^leven the last of you with fishhooks.

3  ^mAnd you shall go out through the breaches,

each one straight ahead;

and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”

declares the Lord.

4  ⁿ“Come to Bethel, and transgress;

to ^oGilgal, and multiply transgression;

ⁿbring your ^psacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

5  offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of ^qthat which is leavened,

and proclaim ^rfreewill offerings, publish them;

^sfor 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 ^tlack of bread in all your places,

^uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

7  “I also ^vwithheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

^wI 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 ^xwould wander to another city

to drink water, and would not be satisfied;

^uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

9  ^y“I struck you with blight and mildew;

your many gardens and your vineyards,

your fig trees and your olive trees ^zthe locust devoured;

^uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

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

I killed your young men with the sword,

and ^bcarried away your horses,¹

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

^uyet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

11  “I overthrew some of you,

^das when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were ^eas a brand² plucked out of the burning;

^uyet 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, ^fhe who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and ^gdeclares to man what is his thought,

^hwho makes the morning darkness,

and ⁱtreads on the heights of the earth—

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

2  “Fallen, no more to rise,

is ^lthe 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 ⁿGilgal

or cross over to ^oBeersheba;

for ⁿGilgal shall surely go into exile,

and ⁿBethel shall come to nothing.”

6  ^mSeek the Lord and live,

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

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

7  O ^qyou who turn justice to wormwood¹

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8  He who made the ^rPleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and ^sdarkens the day into night,

who ^tcalls for the waters of the sea

^tand pours them out on the surface of the earth,

^uthe Lord is his name;

9  ^vwho makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10  ^wThey hate him who reproves ^xin the gate,

and they ^yabhor him who speaks the truth.

11  Therefore because you ^ztrample on² the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

^ayou have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

^ayou 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 ^btake a bribe,

and ^cturn aside the needy ^xin the gate.

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

^efor it is an evil time.

14  ^fSeek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

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

as you have said.

15  ^hHate evil, and love good,

and establish justice ^xin the gate;

ⁱit may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

“In all the squares ^jthere shall be wailing,

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

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and ^jto wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

17  and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for ^kI will pass through your midst,”

says the Lord.

18  Woe to you who desire ^lthe day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

^mIt is darkness, and not light,

19  ⁿas 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  ^mIs not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?

21  ^o“I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22  ^pEven though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I 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 ^qthe melody of your harps I will not listen.

24  But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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

and to those who feel secure on ^xthe mountain of Samaria,

^ythe notable men of ^zthe first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel comes!

2  Pass over to ^aCalneh, and see,

and from there go to ^bHamath the great;

then go down to ^cGath of the Philistines.

^dAre you better than these kingdoms?

Or is their territory greater than your territory,

3  ^eO you who put far away the day of disaster

^fand bring near the seat of violence?

4  “Woe to those ^gwho lie on ^hbeds of ivory

^gand stretch themselves out on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock

ⁱand calves from the midst of the stall,

5  ^jwho sing idle songs to the sound of the harp

and like David ^jinvent for themselves instruments of music,

6  ^kwho drink wine in bowls

and ^lanoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

7  ^mTherefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,

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

“I abhor ^othe pride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds,

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

11  For behold, the Lord commands,

and ^tthe great 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?

^uBut you have turned justice into ^vpoison

^uand the fruit of righteousness into wormwood²—

13  you who rejoice in Lo-debar,³

who say, ^w“Have we not by our own strength

captured Karnaim⁴ for ourselves?”

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

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

“and they shall oppress you from ^yLebo-hamath

to the Brook of ^zthe Arabah.”

“O Lord God, please forgive!

^cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

3  ^dThe Lord relented concerning this:

“It shall not be,” said the Lord.

“O Lord God, please cease!

^cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!”

6  ^dThe Lord relented concerning this:

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

“Behold, I am setting ^fa plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

^gI will never again pass by them;

9  ^hthe high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against ⁱthe house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and ^mIsrael must go into exile

away from his land.’”

“You say, ⁿ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and ^wdo not preach against the house of ^xIsaac.’

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

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

and your land ^zshall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

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

^d“The end¹ has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

3  ^eThe songs of the temple^{2 f}shall become wailings³ in that day,”

declares the Lord God.

^g“So many dead bodies!”

“They are thrown everywhere!”

^h“Silence!”

4  Hear this, ⁱyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5  saying, “When will ^jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And ^kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make ^lthe ephah small and the shekel⁴ great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6  that we may buy the poor for ^msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7  The Lord has sworn by ⁿthe pride of Jacob:

“Surely ^oI will never forget any of their deeds.

8  ^pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

^qand all of it rise like the Nile,

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

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

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

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  ^tI will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

^uI will bring sackcloth on every waist

^uand baldness on every head;

^vI will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

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

“when ^wI will send a famine on the land—

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

^xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.

12  ^xThey shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

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

^ybut they shall not find it.

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

shall ^afaint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by ^bthe Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As ^cthe Way of ^dBeersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”