6 So listen now to what Adonai says:
“Stand up and state your case to the mountains,
let the hills hear what you have to say.”
² Listen, mountains, to Adonai’s case;
also you enduring rocks that support the earth!
Adonai has a case against his people;
he wants to argue it out with Isra’el:
³ “My people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ I brought you up from the land of Egypt.
I redeemed you from a life of slavery.
I sent Moshe, Aharon
and Miryam to lead you.
⁵ My people, just remember what Balak
the king of Mo’av had planned,
what Bil‘am the son of B‘or answered him,
[and what happened] between Sheetim and Gilgal —
so that you will understand
the saving deeds of Adonai.”
⁶ “With what can I come before Adonai
to bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt offerings?
with calves in their first year?
⁷ Would Adonai take delight in thousands of rams
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

⁸ Human being, you have already been told
what is good, what Adonai demands of you —
no more than to act justly, love grace
and walk in purity with your God.

⁹ The voice of Adonai! He calls to the city —
and it is wisdom to fear your name —
“Listen to the rod and to him who commissioned it.
¹⁰ Are there still ill-gotten gains in the house of the wicked?
still the detestable short eifah-measure?
¹¹ Should I declare innocent wicked scales
and a bag of fraudulent weights?
¹² The rich men there are full of violence,
the inhabitants tell lies,
with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

¹³ “Therefore, I am starting to strike you down,
to destroy you because of your sins.
¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied,
with hunger gnawing inside you.
You will conceive but not give birth;
if you do give birth, I will give him to the sword.
¹⁵ You will sow but will not reap,
you will press olives but not rub yourself with oil,
likewise you will press grapes but not drink the wine.
¹⁶ For you keep the regulations of ‘Omri
and all the practices of the house of Ach’av,
modeling yourselves on their advice.
Therefore I will make you an object of horror,
the inhabitants of this city a cause for contempt;
you will suffer the insults aimed at my people.”