Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their selling the just one for silver and the needy for shoes;

Look! I [am] going to press [you] down in your place just as a utility cart full of mature stalks of grain [is pressed down].

Thus, saith Yahweh, Just as a shepherd rescueth, out of the mouth of the lion, a couple of shankbones, or the tip of an ear, so, shall be rescued the sons of Israel, who are tarrying in Samaria, in the corner of the divan, and on the damask of the luxurious couch.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Seek good and not evil, that you may live;
And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you,
Just as you have said!

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: Look! He was forming locust swarms as the latter plantings were just beginning to sprout. Indeed, the king had just taken his first fruit tax.

"You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight," says the Lord. "Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir.

For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, just as [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel shall not fall upon the earth.