[1] Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause
before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills. [2] Give
ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take note, you bases of the
earth: for the Lord has a cause against his people, and he will take it up
with Israel. [3] O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a
weariness to you? give answer against me. [4] For I took you up out of the
land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; I sent before you
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. [5] O my people, keep in mind now what was
designed by Balak, king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor,
gave him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be certain of
the upright acts of the Lord. [6] With what am I to come before the Lord
and go with bent head before the high God? am I to come before him with
burned offerings, with young oxen a year old? [7] Will the Lord be pleased
with thousands of sheep or with ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my
first child for my wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
[8] He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from
you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking
without pride before your God. [9] The voice of the Lord is crying out to
the town: Give ear, you tribes and the meeting of the town. [10] Am I to
let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my memory, and the short measure,
which is cursed? [11] Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag
of false weights go without punishment? [12] For its men of wealth are
cruel, and its people have said what is not true, and their tongue is false
in their mouth. [13] So I have made a start with your punishment; I have
made you waste because of your sins. [14] You will have food, but not
enough; your shame will be ever with you: you will get your goods moved,
but you will not take them away safely; and what you do take away I will
give to the sword. [15] You will put in seed, but you will not get in the
grain; you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be rubbed with
the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you will have no wine. [16]
For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the family of Ahab,
and you have been guided by their designs: so that I might make you a cause
of wonder and your people a cause of hisses; and the shame of my people
will be on you.
