Capítulo 4

1 - Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"

2 - The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: "The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. Or [away in baskets, / the last of you in fish baskets]

3 - You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon, Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew (see Septuagint) [out, you mountain of oppression]" 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. Or [days]

5 - Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and 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 city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

7 - "I also withheld rain from you when 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 water but 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.

10 - "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

11 - "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

12 - "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God."

13 - He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth - the Lord God Almighty is his name.