3
Each of you will leave [the city] through breaks in the wall, one woman ahead of another. You will be thrown into a garbage dump. The LORD declares this.
4
Go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgal and sin even more. Bring your sacrifices every morning. Bring a tenth of your income every three days.
5
Burn bread as a thank offering. Brag and boast about your freewill offerings. This is what you people of Israel love to do. The Almighty LORD declares this.
6
I left you with nothing to eat in any of your cities. I left you with no food in your entire land. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.
7
I stopped the rain from falling three months before the harvest. I sent rain on one city and not on another. One field had rain. Another field had none and dried up.
8
So people from two or three cities staggered as they walked to another city in order to get a drink of water. But they couldn't get enough. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.
9
I struck your [crops] with blight and mildew. Locusts repeatedly devoured your gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.
10
I sent plagues on you as I did to Egypt. With swords I killed your best young men along with your captured horses. I made the stench from your camps fill your noses. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.
11
I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning log snatched from a fire. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.
12
This is what I will do to you, Israel. Prepare to meet your God. This is what I will do to you, Israel!
13
God forms the mountains and creates the wind. He reveals his thoughts to humans. He makes dawn and dusk [appear]. He walks on the high places of the earth. His name is the LORD God of Armies.