1 Hear what the Lord is saying:Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;let the hills hear your voice!
2 Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;with Israel he will argue.
3 “My people, what did I ever do to you?How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;I redeemed you from the house of slavery.I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.
5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!Remember everything from Shittim to Gilgal,that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”
6 With what should I approach the Lordand bow down before God on high?Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,with year-old calves?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,with many torrents of oil?Should I give my oldest child for my crime;the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
8 He has told you, human one, what is good andwhat the Lord requires from you:to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
9 The voice of the Lord calls out to the city;wisdom appears when one fears your name.Hear, tribe, and who appointed her!
10 Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of wickedness,while the shorted basket is denounced?
11 Can I approve wicked scales and a bag of false weights
12 in a city whose wealthy are full of violenceand whose inhabitants speak falsehoodwith lying tongues in their mouths?
13 So I have made you sick by striking you!I have struck you because of your sins.
14 You devour, but you aren’t satisfied;a gnawing emptiness is within you.You put something aside,but you don’t keep it safe.That which you do try to keep safe,I will give to the sword.
15 You sow, but you don’t gather.You tread down olives, but you don’t anoint with oil;you tread grapes, but don’t drink wine.
16 Yet you have kept the policies of Omri,all the practices of the house of Ahab;you have followed their counsels.Therefore, I will make you a sign of destruction,your inhabitants an object of hissing!You must bear the reproach of my people.