Punishment Brings No Repentance
1 Listen to this word,
you cows of Bashan on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy,
who tell their husbands,
“Bring us drinks!”
2 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness,
“The days shall come upon you
when they will take you away with hooks,
and the last of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the broken walls,
each woman in front of the other,
and you will be cast into Harmon,” says the LORD.
4 “Go to Bethel and rebel,
to Gilgal, and rebel more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days.
5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of leavened bread
and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them,
for this pleases you, you Israelites,” says the Lord GOD.
6 “I have given you nothing at all to eat in all your cities,
and a lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,” says the LORD.
7 “I also have withheld the rain from you,
when there were yet three months to the harvest,
and I caused it to rain on one city,
and kept it from raining on another city.
One place had rain,
and the field where it did not rain withered.
8 So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water,
and were not satisfied,
yet you have not returned to me,” says the LORD.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards,
and the swarming locusts have devoured your fig trees and your olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,” says the LORD.
10 “I sent plagues among you like I did in Egypt.
I have slain your young men with the sword
and have taken your horses,
and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,
yet you have not returned to me,” says the LORD.
11 “I have overthrown some of you,
as when I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,” says the LORD.
12 “Therefore that is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel.
13 For he who forms the mountains,
and creates the wind,
and declares to man what he is thinking,
who makes the morning darkness
and treads on the high places of the earth;
the LORD, the God of Hosts, is his name.”