1. HEAR THIS word, you cows [women] of Bashan who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, Bring and let us drink! [Ps. 22:12; Ezek. 39:18.]

2. The Lord God has sworn by His holiness that behold, the days shall come upon you when they shall take you away with hooks and the last of you with fishhooks. [Ps. 89:35.]

3. And you shall go out through the breaches [made in the city's wall], every [woman] straight before her, and you shall be cast forth into Harmon [an unknown place of exile], says the Lord.

4. Come to Bethel [where the golden calf is] and transgress; at Gilgal [another idol worship center] multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days.

5. And offer [by burning] a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim and publish freewill offerings, for this you like to do, O children of Israel! says the Lord God.

6. I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

7. And also I withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece of ground was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.

8. So [the people of] two or three cities wandered and staggered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

9. I smote you with blight [from the poisonous east wind] and with mildew; I laid waste the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and your olive trees the palmerworm [a form of locust] devoured; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

10. I have sent among you the pestilence [which I made] epidemic in Egypt; your young men I slew with the sword and I took into exile your horses, and I made the stench of your camp come up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord. [II Kings 8:12; 13:3, 7.]

11. I have overthrown some among you as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord. [Gen. 19:24, 25; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18.]

12. Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

13. For behold, He Who forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what is his thought, Who makes the morning darkness and treads on the heights of the earth--the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name! [Ps. 139:2; Dan. 2:28.]