[1] Listen to me, you "fat cows" of Bashan living in Samaria-you women who encourage your husbands to rob the poor and crush the needy-you who never have enough to drink! [2] The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that the time will come when he will put hooks in your noses and lead you away like the cattle you are; they will drag the last of you away with fishhooks! [3] You will be hauled from your beautiful homes and tossed out through the nearest breach in the wall. The Lord has said it. [4] Go ahead and sacrifice to idols at Bethel and Gilgal. Keep disobeying-your sins are mounting up. Sacrifice each morning and bring your tithes twice a week! [5] Go through all your proper forms and give extra offerings. How you pride yourselves and crow about it everywhere! [6] "I sent you hunger," says the Lord, "but it did no good; you still would not return to me. [7] I ruined your crops by holding back the rain three months before the harvest. I sent rain on one city but not another. While rain fell on one field, another was dry and withered. [8] People from two or three cities would make their weary journey for a drink of water to a city that had rain, but there wasn't ever enough. Yet you wouldn't return to me," says the Lord. [9] "I sent blight and mildew on your farms and your vineyards; the locusts ate your figs and olive trees. And still you wouldn't return to me," says the Lord. [10] "I sent you plagues like those of Egypt long ago. I killed your lads in war and drove away your horses. The stench of death was terrible to smell. And yet you refused to come. [11] I destroyed some of your cities, as I did Sodom and Gomorrah; those left are like half-burned firebrands snatched away from fire. And still you won't return to me," says the Lord. [12] "Therefore, I will bring upon you all these further evils I have spoken of. Prepare to meet your God in judgment, Israel. [13] For you are dealing with the One who formed the mountains, made the winds, and knows your every thought; he turns the morning to darkness and crushes down the mountains underneath his feet: Jehovah, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, is his name."
