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Hear this word, you cows of Bashan
    who are on Mount Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
    who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”(A)

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Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
    and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
    to whom the house of Israel resorts!(A)

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12 Many bulls encircle me;
    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;(A)

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11 Therefore because you trample on the poor
    and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.(A)

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18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatted calves of Bashan.(A)

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Warning to Rich Oppressors

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.(A) Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure[a] during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.(B) You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.(C) You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

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Footnotes

  1. 5.3 Or will eat your flesh, since you have stored up fire

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.(A)

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10 do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.(A) 11 But they refused to listen and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears in order not to hear.(B)

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Wicked Rulers and Prophets

And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—(A)
    you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
    and the flesh off their bones,(B)
who eat the flesh of my people,
    flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
    and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
    like flesh in a caldron.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.2 Heb from them
  2. 3.3 Gk: Heb as

Social Evils Denounced

Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and evil deeds[a] on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in their power.(A)
They covet fields and seize them,
    houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
    people and their inheritance.(B)
Therefore thus says the Lord:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
    from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk arrogantly,
    for it will be an evil time.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.1 Cn: Heb work evil

Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
    and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(A)
saying, “When will the new moon be over
    so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
    so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
    and practice deceit with false balances,(B)
buying the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(C)

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Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod
    and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount[a] Samaria,
    and see what great tumults are within it
    and what oppressions are in its midst.”(A)
10 They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
    those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.9 Gk Syr: Heb the mountains of

Judgment on Israel

Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,[a]
because they sell the righteous for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals—(A)
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth
    and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same young woman,
    so that my holy name is profaned;(B)
they lay themselves down beside every altar
    on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
    wine bought with fines they imposed.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.6 Heb cause it to return

and cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine and drunk it down.(A)

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29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the alien without justice.(A)

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27 Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.(A)

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12 In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest and make gain of your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.(A)

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Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.(A)

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34 “King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
    he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
    he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies;
    he has spewed me out.(A)

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27 Kill all her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Alas for them, their day has come,
    the time of their punishment!(A)

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11 Though you rejoice, though you exult,
    O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass
    and neigh like stallions,(A)

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if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,(A)

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For thus says the Lord of hosts:
Cut down her trees;
    cast up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;[a]
    there is nothing but oppression within her.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.6 Or the city of license

26 For the wicked are found among my people.
    They lie in wait like hunters;
destroyers,[a] they catch humans.(A)
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich;(B)
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
    they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.(C)
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
            says the Lord,
    and shall I not bring retribution
    on a nation such as this?(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 5.26 Meaning of Heb uncertain

Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?(A)

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