Punishment Brings No Repentance
1Hear this word,you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,you women who oppress the poorand crush the needy,who say to your husbands,“Bring us more to drink.”
2The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness:“Behold, the days are comingwhen you will be taken away with hooks,and your posterity with fishhooks.
3You will go out through broken walls,each one straight ahead of her,and you will be cast out toward Harmon,+”declares the LORD.
4“Go to Bethel and transgress;rebel even more at Gilgal!Bring your sacrifices every morning,your tithes every three days.+
5Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings.For that is what you children of Israel love to do,”declares the Lord GOD.
6“I afflicted all your cities with cleanness of teeth+and all your towns with lack of bread,yet you did not return to Me,”declares the LORD.
7“I also withheld the rain from youwhen the harvest was three months away.I sent rain on one citybut withheld it from another.One field received rain;another without rain withered.
8People staggered from city to cityfor water to drink,but they were not satisfied;yet you did not return to Me,”declares the LORD.
9“I struck you with blight and mildewin your growing gardens and vineyards;the locust devoured your fig and olive trees,yet you did not return to Me,”declares the LORD.
10“I sent plagues among youlike those of Egypt;I killed your young men with the sword,along with your captured horses.I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,yet you did not return to Me,”declares the LORD.
11“Some of you I overthrewas I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,and you were like a firebrand+snatched from a blaze,yet you did not return to Me,”declares the LORD.
12“Therefore, that is what I will doto you, O Israel,and since I will do this to you,prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13For behold, He who forms the mountains,who creates the windand reveals His thoughts to man,who turns the dawn to darknessand strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”