¹Listen now to what Yahweh says:

• “Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
• and let the hills hear what you have to say.

• ²Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy,
• and you enduring foundations of the earth;
• for Yahweh has a controversy with his people,
• and he will contend with Israel.

• ³My people, what have I done to you?
• How have I burdened you?
• Answer me!

• ⁴For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
• and redeemed you out of the house of bondage.
• I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

• ⁵My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised,
• and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal,
• that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh.”

• ⁶How shall I come before Yahweh,
• and bow myself before the exalted God?

• Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
• with calves a year old?

• ⁷Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams?
• With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?

• Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience?
• The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

• ⁸He has shown you, O man, what is good.
• What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly,
• to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

• ⁹Yahweh’s voice calls to the city,
• and wisdom sees your name:

• “Listen to the rod,
• and he who appointed it.

• ¹⁰Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
• and a short ephah *An ephah is a measure of volume (about 22 litres or about 2/3 of a bushel), and a short ephah is made smaller than a full ephah for the purpose of cheating customers. that is accursed?

• ¹¹Shall I be pure with dishonest scales,
• and with a bag of deceitful weights?

• ¹²Her rich men are full of violence,
• her inhabitants speak lies,
• and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

• ¹³Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound.
• I have made you desolate because of your sins.

• ¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
• Your humiliation will be in your midst.
• You will store up, but not save;
• and that which you save I will give up to the sword.

• ¹⁵You will sow, but won’t reap.
• You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil;
• and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.

• ¹⁶For the statutes of Omri are kept,
• and all the works of the house of Ahab.
• You walk in their counsels,
• that I may make you a ruin,
• and her inhabitants a hissing;
• And you will bear the reproach of my people.”