1. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,you women who oppress the poor and crush the needyand say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!’
2. The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:‘The time will surely comewhen you will be taken away with hooks,the last of you with fishhooks.
3. You will each go straight outthrough breaches in the wall,and you will be cast out towards Harmon,’declares the Lord.
4. ‘Go to Bethel and sin;go to Gilgal and sin yet more.Bring your sacrifices every morning,your tithes every three years.
5. Burn leavened bread as a thank-offeringand brag about your freewill offerings –boast about them, you Israelites,for this is what you love to do,’declares the Sovereign Lord.
6. ‘I gave you empty stomachs in every cityand lack of bread in every town,yet you have not returned to me,’declares the Lord.
7. ‘I also withheld rain from youwhen the harvest was still three months away.I sent rain on one town,but withheld it from another.One field had rain;another had none and dried up.
8. People staggered from town to town for waterbut did not get enough to drink,yet you have not returned to me,’declares the Lord.
9. ‘Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,destroying them with blight and mildew.Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,yet you have not returned to me,’declares the Lord.