4 Listen to this, you who trample the needy

≈and take the poor off the land. 5 They say,

“When will the new moon celebrations be over, so we can sell grain again?

≈When will the Rest Day be over, so we can sell wheat?

We’ll make the measure small and increase the price,

≈as we cheat with false scales.

6 This is so we can sell low-grade wheat.

We can buy the poor people with cash,

≈and the needy people for a pair of sandals.”

7 Yahweh has made an oath on Yakob’s pride,

“I certainly won’t ever forget any of their evil actions.

8 Won’t the land itself quake due to this behaviour,

and every one who lives in it mourn?

All of the ground will come up like the Nile River after the rains,

≈and it will be tossed about then settle again, like Egypt’s river.

9 This is the declaration of my master Yahweh:

“It will come at that time that I’ll make the sun set at noon,

≈and I will darken the earth during the day.

10 I’ll turn your festivals into mourning

≈and all your songs into dirges.

I’ll make all of you wear sackcloth

and every head to be shaved.

I’ll make it like mourning for an only son,

≈and a bitter day to its end.

11 This is the declaration of my master Yahweh:

Listen, the days are coming when I’ll send a famine to this country.

Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,

but for hearing Yahweh’s messages.

12 They’ll stagger from sea to sea.

They’ll rove around from the north to the east to seek Yahweh’s message,

but they won’t find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women

≈and the young men will faint from dehydration.

14 Those who swear by the guilt of Shomron (Samaria)

and say, ‘As your god lives, Dan,’

and, ‘As the road to Beer-Sheva exists’—

they will die and never live again.”