⁴ Listen to me, you who ·walk on helpless people [trample the needy],
    you who are trying to ·destroy [do away with] the poor people of this country, saying,
⁵ “When will the New Moon festival be over
    so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath be over
    so we can bring out wheat to sell?
We can ·give them less [^Lmake the ephah small; ^Ca unit of dry measure]
    and ·charge them more [^Lthe shekel great; ^Ca unit of money],
    and we can change the scales to cheat the people.
⁶ We will buy poor people for silver,
    and needy people for a pair of sandals [2:6].
    We will even sell the ·wheat that was swept up from the floor [^Lchaff of the wheat].”
⁷ The Lord has sworn by ·his name, the Pride of Jacob [or the arrogance of Jacob], “I will never forget everything that these people did.
⁸ The whole ·land [or earth] will shake because of it,
    and everyone who lives in the land will ·cry for those who died [mourn].
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
    it will be ·shaken [stirred/heaved up], and then it will ·fall [sink; subside]
    like the Nile River in Egypt [^Cthe Nile flooded its banks each year].”
⁹ The Lord God says:
“·At that time [^LIn that day] I will cause the sun to go down at noon
    and make the earth dark ·on a bright day [in broad daylight].
¹⁰ I will change your festivals into ·days of crying for the dead [mourning],
    and all your songs will become ·songs of sadness [dirges; lamentation; weeping].
I will ·make all of you wear rough cloth to show your sadness [^Lput sackcloth on every waist];
    ·I will make you shave your heads as well [^L…and baldness on every head].
I will make it like ·a time of crying [mourning] for the death of an only son,
    and its end like the end of an ·awful [bitter] day.”

¹¹ The Lord God says: “[^LLook; ^TBehold] The days are coming
    when I will ·cause a time of hunger in [send a famine throughout] the land.
·The people will not be hungry for bread or thirsty for water [^L… not a famine of food or a thirst for water],
    but ·they will be hungry for words from [^Lfor hearing the words of] the Lord.
¹² They will ·wander [or stagger] from the ·Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea [^Lsea to sea; ^Cacross the whole land],
    from the north to the east.
They will ·search for [run to and fro seeking] the word of the Lord,
    but they won’t find it.
¹³ ·At that time [^LIn that day] the beautiful ·young women [virgins] and the young men
    will ·become weak [faint] from thirst.
¹⁴ They ·make promises [swear oaths] by the ·idol in [^Lsin of] Samaria
    and say, ‘As surely as the god of Dan lives … [1 Kin. 12:29]’
    and, ‘As surely as the ·god of [^Lway to; ^Cperhaps the pilgrimage route to the pagan worship there] Beersheba lives, we promise….’ [^CDan was the city farthest north in Israel and Beersheba farthest south.]
So they will fall
    and never get up again.”