| Chapter 4
|
| 1 | Hear this
word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the
poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us
drink. |
| 2 | The Lord GOD
hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he
will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. |
| 3 | And ye shall go out at the breaches,
every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace,
saith the LORD. |
| 4 | Come to
Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your
sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: |
| 5 | And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving
with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you,
O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. |
| 6 | And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your
cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the LORD. |
| 7 | And
also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to
the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain
upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained
not withered. |
| 8 | So two or
three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not
satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. |
| 9 | I have smitten you with blasting and
mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive
trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the LORD. |
| 10 | I
have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men
have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made
the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned
unto me, saith the LORD. |
| 11 |
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye
were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the LORD. |
| 12 |
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. |
| 13 | For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth
the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning
darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of
hosts, is his name. |
