¹ Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink.

² The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks.

³ And ye shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; and ye shall cast [yourselves] into Harmon, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, [and] multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes every three days;

⁵ and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill-offerings and publish them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

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 Jehovah.

⁷ And I also 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, and were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

⁹ I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

¹⁰ I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

¹¹ I have overthrown [cities] among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

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-jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name.

¹ Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, [departing] from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor.

² The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.

³ They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴ They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

⁵ What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?

⁶ For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; [yet] Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷ The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

⁸ Ephraim [was] a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, [and] enmity in the house of his God.

⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

¹² Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

¹³ Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer.

¹⁴ Give them, O Jehovah-what wilt thou Give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.

¹⁶ Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb.

¹⁷ My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.