4 Hear this, you who crush the poor and who make those in need of land to do without.
5 You say, "When will the first day of the month be over, so we can sell our wares, and the sabbath, so we can open the grain: in order that we may decrease the measure, and increase the price, and substitute deceitful scales,
6 in order that we may possess the destitute with money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell even the refuse of the grain?"
7 The Lord has sworn by the arrogance of Jacob: I will not forget, even to the end, all their works.
8 Will not the earth shudder over this, and all its inhabitants mourn, and all rise up like a river, and be cast out, and flow away like the river of Egypt?
9 And it will be in that day, says the Lord God, that the sun will decline at midday, and I will cause the earth to become dark on the day of light.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your hymns into lamentation. And I will put sackcloth over every one of your backs, and baldness on every head. And I will begin it like the mourning for an only-begotten son, and complete it like a bitter day.