Israel will be destroyed

4 It is as though you people trample on needy people,

and you destroy the poor people.

5 You habitually say,

“We wish that [RHQ] the new moon festival would end soon,

in order that restrictions on doing business during the festival will be ended

and we can sell grain.

We wish that the Sabbath would end soon,

in order that we will again be permitted to sell our wheat”—

and when you sell it,

you charge a big price for it,

and you cheat people by using scales that do not weigh correctly.

6 You sell wheat that you have swept up from the floor, and as a result it is mixed with dirt.

Those who are needy and poor [DOU] and who do not have money to buy things,

you cause them to become your slaves

by buying them with the small amount of silver with which you could buy a pair of sandals!

7 Yahweh has declared, “Although you are very proud of being descendants [MTY] of Jacob, I solemnly declare that I will not forget the evil things that you have done.

8 Because of those evil things, your country will certainly [RHQ] soon be shaken,

and all of you will mourn.

It will be as though it will repeatedly rise and fall

like [SIM] the Nile River that gets full of water and overflows it banks

and then settles back into its riverbed.

9 On the day when I punish my people,

I will cause the sun to set at noontime,

and the entire earth will be dark in the daytime.

10 I will cause your religious celebrations to become times when you mourn;

instead of singing, everyone will be weeping.

Because of what I will do, all of you will wear rough sackcloth and shave your heads

to show that you are sorrowing.

I will cause that time to be like when people mourn after an only son has died.

All of you will be extremely sad all of that day.”

11 And Yahweh our God says this:

“It will soon be the time when I will cause something to be very scarce [MET] throughout the country.

But it will not be a time when there is no food or water;

it will instead be a time when there will be no messages from me for anyone to hear.

12 People will stagger from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,

and wander from the north to the east,

searching for a message from me,

but there will not be any.

13 At that time,

even beautiful young women and strong young men will faint

because of being very thirsty.

14 Those who ◄make oaths/solemnly promise to do something► using the names of their shameful gods of Samaria,

and those who solemnly promise to do something using the name of the god of Dan,

and those who solemnly promise to do something using the name of the god of Beersheba,

will all die;

and they will never live again.”