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.