⁴ Listen to this, you who rob the poor
    and trample down the needy!
⁵ You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over
    and the religious festivals to end
    so you can get back to cheating the helpless.
You measure out grain with dishonest measures
    and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.^[a]
6 And you mix the grain you sell
    with chaff swept from the floor.
Then you enslave poor people
    for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.

⁷ Now the Lord has sworn this oath
    by his own name, the Pride of Israel^[b]:
“I will never forget
    the wicked things you have done!
⁸ The earth will tremble for your deeds,
    and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
    it will heave up, then sink again.

⁹ “In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth while it is still day.
¹⁰ I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
    and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
    and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
    How very bitter that day will be!

¹¹ “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from border to border^[c]
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.
¹³ Beautiful girls and strong young men
    will grow faint in that day,
    thirsting for the Lord’s word.
¹⁴ And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
    who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
    and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba^[d]—
they will all fall down,
    never to rise again.”

⁴ “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.
    Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.
Offer sacrifices each morning,
    and bring your tithes every three days.
⁵ Present your bread made with yeast
    as an offering of thanksgiving.
Then give your extra voluntary offerings
    so you can brag about it everywhere!
This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,”
    says the Sovereign Lord.

⁶ “I brought hunger to every city
    and famine to every town.
But still you would not return to me,”
    says the Lord.

⁷ “I kept the rain from falling
    when your crops needed it the most.
I sent rain on one town
    but withheld it from another.
Rain fell on one field,
    while another field withered away.
⁸ People staggered from town to town looking for water,
    but there was never enough.
But still you would not return to me,”
    says the Lord.

⁹ “I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew.
    Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees.
But still you would not return to me,”
    says the Lord.

¹⁰ “I sent plagues on you
    like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.
I killed your young men in war
    and led all your horses away.^[c]
    The stench of death filled the air!
But still you would not return to me,”
    says the Lord.

¹¹ “I destroyed some of your cities,
    as I destroyed^[d] Sodom and Gomorrah.
Those of you who survived
    were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
But still you would not return to me,”
    says the Lord.

¹² “Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.
    Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”

¹³ For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains,
    stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.
He turns the light of dawn into darkness
    and treads on the heights of the earth.
    The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

² “From among all the families on the earth,
    I have been intimate with you alone.
That is why I must punish you
    for all your sins.”

⁷ Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything
    until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.

⁸ The lion has roared—
    so who isn’t frightened?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken—
    so who can refuse to proclaim his message?
⁹ Announce this to the leaders of Philistia^[a]
    and to the great ones of Egypt:
“Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria,
    and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”

¹⁰ “My people have forgotten how to do right,”
    says the Lord.
“Their fortresses are filled with wealth
    taken by theft and violence.
¹¹ Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord,
    “an enemy is coming!
He will surround them and shatter their defenses.
    Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”

“A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth
    will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear.
So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds,
    and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.^[b]

¹⁴ “On the very day I punish Israel for its sins,
    I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel.
The horns of the altar will be cut off
    and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy—
    their winter mansions and their summer houses, too—
all their palaces filled with ivory,”
    says the Lord.