1 Hear what the Lord says:Arise, plead your case before the mountains,and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,and you enduring foundations of the earth,for the Lord has an indictment against his people,and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egyptand redeemed you from the house of slavery,and I sent before you Moses,Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord,and bow myself before God on high?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?
9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city—and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
10 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,and the scant measure that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scalesand with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Your rich men are full of violence;your inhabitants speak lies,and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied,and there shall be hunger within you;you shall put away, but not preserve,and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15 You shall sow, but not reap;you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri,and all the works of the house of Ahab;and you have walked in their counsels,that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing;so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”