4:1Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, Who are in the mountain of Samaria, Who are oppressing the poor, Who are bruising the needy, Who are saying to their lords: `Bring in, and we do drink.'

4:2Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by His holiness, That lo, days are coming upon you, And he hath taken you away with hooks, And your posterity with fish-hooks.

4:3And by breaches ye go forth, A woman at that over-against her, And ye have cast down the high place, An affirmation of Jehovah.

4:4Enter ye Beth-El, and transgress, At Gilgal multiply transgression, And bring in every morning your sacrifices, Every third year your tithes.

4:5And perfume with leaven a thank-offering, And proclaim willing gifts, sound ye! For so ye have loved, O sons of Israel, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

4:6And I also -- I have given to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, And lack of bread in all your places, And ye have not turned back unto Me, an affirmation of Jehovah.

4:7And I also -- I have withheld from you the rain. While yet three months to harvest, And I have sent rain on one city, And on another city I do not send rain, One portion is rained on, And the portion on which it raineth not withereth.

4:8And wandered have two or three cities, Unto the same city to drink water, And they are not satisfied, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.

4:9I have smitten you with blasting and with mildew, The abundance of your gardens and of your vineyards, And of your figs, and of your olives, Eat doth the palmer-worm, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.

4:10I have sent among you pestilence by the way of Egypt, I have slain by sword your choice ones, With your captive horses, And I cause the stink of your camps to come up -- even into your nostrils, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.

4:11I have overturned among you, Like the overturn by God of Sodom and Gomorrah, And ye are as a brand delivered from a burning, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.

4:12Therefore, thus I do to thee, O Israel, at last, Because this I do to thee, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

4:13For, lo, the former of mountains, and creator of wind, And the declarer to man what is His thought, He is making dawn obscurity, And is treading on high places of earth, Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His name!

5:1Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel:

5:2`Fallen, not again to rise, hath the virgin of Israel, Left on her land -- she hath no raiser up.'

5:3For thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city that is going out a thousand, Doth leave an hundred, And that which is going out an hundred, Doth leave ten to the house of Israel.

5:4For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live,

5:5And seek not Beth-El, and Gilgal enter not, And Beer-Sheba pass not through, For Gilgal doth utterly remove, And Beth-El doth become vanity.

5:6Seek ye Jehovah, and live, Lest He prosper as fire against the house of Joseph, And it hath consumed, And there is no quencher for Beth-El.

5:7Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down,

5:8The maker of Kimah and Kesil, And the turner to morning of death-shade, And day as night He hath made dark, Who is calling to the waters of the sea, And poureth them on the face of the earth, Jehovah is His name;

5:9Who is brightening up the spoiled against the strong, And the spoiled against a fortress cometh.

5:10They have hated a reprover in the gate, And a plain speaker they abominate.

5:11Therefore, because of your trampling on the poor, And the tribute of corn ye take from him, Houses of hewn work ye have built, And ye do not dwell in them, Desirable vineyards ye have planted, And ye do not drink their wine.

5:12For I have known -- many are your transgressions, And mighty your sins, Adversaries of the righteous, taking ransoms, And the needy in the gate ye turned aside.

5:13Therefore is the wise at that time silent, For an evil time it is.

5:14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live, And it is so; Jehovah, God of Hosts, is with you, as ye said.

5:15Hate evil, and love good, And set up judgment in the gate, It may be Jehovah, God of Hosts, doth pity the remnant of Joseph.

5:16Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, the Lord, In all broad places is lamentation, And in all out-places they say, `Alas, alas,' And called the husbandman to mourning, And to lamentation the skilful of wailing.

5:17And in all vineyards is lamentation, For I pass into thy midst, said Jehovah.

5:18Ho, ye who are desiring the day of Jehovah, Why is this to you -- the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light,

5:19As when one fleeth from the face of the lion, And the bear hath met him, And he hath come in to the house, And hath leant his hand on the wall, And the serpent hath bitten him.

5:20Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, Even thick darkness that hath no brightness?

5:21I have hated -- I have loathed your festivals, And I am not refreshed by your restraints.

5:22For though ye cause burnt-offerings and your presents to ascend to Me, I am not pleased, And the peace-offering of your fatlings I behold not.

5:23Turn aside from Me the noise of thy songs, Yea, the praise of thy psaltery I hear not.

5:24And roll on as waters doth judgment, And righteousness as a perennial stream.

5:25Sacrifices and offering did ye bring nigh to Me, In a wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

5:26And ye bare Succoth your king, and Chiun your images, The star of your god, that ye made for yourselves.

5:27And I removed you beyond Damascus, Said Jehovah, God of Hosts is His name.

6:1Wo to those secure in Zion, And those confident in the mount of Samaria, The marked of the chief of the nations, And come to them have the house of Israel.

6:2Pass ye over to Calneh and see, And go thence to Hamath the great, And go down to Gath of the Philistines, Are they better than these kingdoms? Greater is their border than your border?

6:3Who are putting away the day of evil, And ye bring nigh the seat of violence,

6:4Who are lying down on beds of ivory, And are spread out on their couches, And are eating lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall,

6:5Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music;

6:6Who are drinking with bowls of wine, And with chief perfumes anoint themselves, And have not been pained for the breach of Joseph.

6:7Therefore now they remove at the head of the captives, And turned aside is the mourning-feast of stretched-out ones.

6:8Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by Himself, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts: I am abominating the excellency of Jacob, And his high places I have hated, And I have delivered up the city and its fulness.

6:9And if there are left ten persons in one house, It hath come to pass -- that they have died.

6:10And lifted him up hath his loved one, even his burner, To bring forth the bones from the house, And he said to him who is in the sides of the house, `Is there yet with thee?' And he said, `None,' then he said, `Hush! Save to make mention of the name of Jehovah.'

6:11For lo, Jehovah is commanding, And He hath smitten the great house with breaches, And the little house with clefts.

6:12Do horses run on a rock? Doth one plough it with oxen? For ye have turned to gall judgment, And the fruit of righteousness to wormwood.

6:13O ye who are rejoicing at nothing, Who are saying, `Have we not by our strength taken to ourselves horns?'

6:14Surely, lo, I am raising against you a nation, O house of Israel, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts, And they have oppressed you from the coming in to Hamath, Unto the stream of the desert.