Punishment Brings No Repentance

¹ Hear this word,

you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,

you women who oppress the poor

and crush the needy,

who say to your husbands,^*

“Bring us more to drink.”

² The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness:

“Behold, the days are coming

when you will be taken away with hooks,^*

and your posterity^* with^* fishhooks.

³ You 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.

⁵ Offer^* 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 you

when the harvest was three months away.

I sent rain on one city

but withheld it from another.

One field received rain;

another without rain withered.

⁸ People staggered from city to city

for 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 mildew

in 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 you

like 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 overthrew

as 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 do

to you, O Israel,

and since I will do this to you,

prepare to meet^* your God, O Israel!

¹³ For behold, He who forms the mountains,

who creates the wind^*

and reveals His thoughts to man,

who turns the dawn to darkness

and strides on the heights of the earth—

the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”