Israel has not returned to God

4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
    you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
    and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!’
² The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
    ‘The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
    the last of you with fishhooks.
³ You will each go straight out
    through breaches in the wall,
    and you will be cast out towards Harmon,’
declares the Lord.
⁴ ‘Go to Bethel and sin;
    go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every three years.
⁵ Burn leavened bread as a thank-offering
    and brag about your freewill offerings –
boast about them, you Israelites,
    for this is what you love to do,’
declares the Sovereign Lord.

⁶ ‘I gave you empty stomachs in every city
    and lack of bread in every town,
    yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.

⁷ ‘I also withheld rain from you
    when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
    but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
    another had none and dried up.
⁸ People staggered from town to town for water
    but did not get enough to drink,
    yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.

⁹ ‘Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
    destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
    yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.

¹⁰ ‘I sent plagues among you
    as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
    along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
    yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.

¹¹ ‘I overthrew some of you
    as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
    yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the Lord.

¹² ‘Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
    and because I will do this to you, Israel,
    prepare to meet your God.’

¹³ He who forms the mountains,
    who creates the wind,
    and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth –
    the Lord God Almighty is his name.