Chapter 4.
Hear this word, ye kind of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Sumeria,
which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters,
Bring, and let us drink.
The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness that, Lo, the day shall come upon you,
that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks,
and ye shall go out at the breeches, every cow at that which is before her,
and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.
Come to Bethel, and transgress.
At Gilgal, multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning,
and your tithes after three years, 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.
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.
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 peace was rained upon, and the peace whereupon it rained not withered.
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.
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew.
When your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees
increased, the palmer worm devoured them.
Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manor 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.
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.
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel.
And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
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.