1 ARST Listen up, you wealthy women of Samaria! You have gorged yourselves on luxuries and grown fat like the cows of the region of Bashan. You oppress poor people, and you cause needy people to suffer. And you say to your husbands,“Bring us more wine to drink!” BSB BSB: 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 ARST But Yahweh our God has said this:“Because I am holy, I solemnly promise this: It will soon be the time when you all will be taken to another country; your enemies will take you away using sharp hooks to grab you. BSB BSB: 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 ARST Your enemies will drag you out and you will go through breaks in your city walls, and they will force you to go toward Harmon.” Yahweh has declared this, so it will certainly happen. BSB BSB: 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 ARST Go ahead: go to the hilltop places of idol worship that are at Bethel and Gilgal, where many people worship me; go and rebel more and more against me! Offer sacrifices on the morning after you arrive, and bring me a tenth of your crops the next day. BSB BSB: “Go to Bethel and transgress; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
5 ARST Bring offerings of bread to thank me, and other offerings that are not required, and boast about these offerings that you bring, because that is what you like to do; but you do it to impress others, not to please me.” Yahweh the Lord has declared this. BSB BSB: 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.
7 ARST Furthermore, when it was still three months before the time of harvesting crops, at the time when your crops needed rain the most, I prevented rain from falling. Sometimes I allowed rain to fall on some towns and prevented it from falling on other towns. Rain fell on some fields, but it did not fall on other fields, with the result that the soil in those fields where it did not rain dried up. BSB BSB: “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 ARST Your people would stagger from one town to another town to find water, but they could not even get enough water to drink. Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. BSB BSB: 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 ARST Many times I struck your crops with disease and mildew. The locusts devoured your gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees, yet you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. BSB BSB: “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 ARST I caused you to experience plagues like the plagues that I sent to the people of Egypt. I caused many of your young men to die in battles. and allowed your enemies to capture your horses. Many of your soldiers were killed, and your camps were filled with the smell of their corpses. Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. BSB BSB: “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 ARST I got rid of many of you, like the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. Those of you who did not die were like a burning stick that was snatched from a fire so that it would not burn completely. Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. BSB BSB: “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 ARST So now, you people of Israel, I am going to punish you. Prepare to stand in front of me, your God, when I judge you! BSB BSB: “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 ARST So, listen! I created the mountains, and the winds. I reveal to humans what I am thinking. and sometimes cause the daylight to become dark like the night. I rule over everything, and even walk on the highest mountains on the earth! I am Yahweh, commander of the angel armies!” BSB BSB: 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.”