1 Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan up on Samaria's mountain, you who wrong the poor and grind down the needy and keep telling your lords, "Bring drinks, let us drink!"
2 By his holiness the Lord GOD has sworn: The days are surely coming on you when you will be dragged away with hooks, and those who are left with fishing barbs.
3 Through the gaps in the wall you will go out, each one straight ahead, and you will be flung toward Harmon, declares the LORD.
4 Off to Bethel, then, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin all the more! Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every third day.
5 Send up a thank offering of leavened bread in smoke, and announce your freewill gifts, broadcast them; for this is what you love, children of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.
6 For my part, I gave you clean teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your towns; but you did not come back to me, declares the LORD.
7 And I kept back the rain from you while the harvest was still three months off; I would let it rain on one town and not on another; one plot got rain, and the plot that got none withered.
8 People from two or three towns would stagger to one town to drink water and not have enough; but you did not come back to me, declares the LORD.
9 I struck you with scorching and with mildew; the cutting locust ate up the abundance of your gardens and your vineyards, your figs and your olives; but you did not come back to me, declares the LORD.
10 I let loose among you a pestilence like that of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword, and your horses were taken captive; I made the stench of your camps go up into your very nostrils; but you did not come back to me, declares the LORD.
11 I brought ruin among you as God ruined Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a stick snatched out of the blaze; but you did not come back to me, declares the LORD.
12 That is why I will deal with you this way, Israel; and since I will do this to you, get ready to meet your God, Israel!
13 For look: the one who forms the mountains and creates the wind, who tells man what his thoughts are, who turns the dawn to darkness and treads on the heights of the earth — the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name.