4  Hear this, iyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5  saying, “When will jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make lthe ephah small and the shekel4 great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6  that we may buy the poor for msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7  The Lord has sworn by nthe pride of Jacob:

“Surely oI will never forget any of their deeds.

8  pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

qand all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9  “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

s“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  tI will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

uI will bring sackcloth on every waist

uand baldness on every head;

vI will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11  “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when wI will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.

12  xThey shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

ybut they shall not find it.

13  z“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall afaint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by bthe Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As cthe Way of dBeersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”