“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear what you have to say.
² Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth;
    for Yahweh has a case against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.
³ My people, what have I done to you?
    How have I burdened you?
    Answer me!
⁴ For 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.
⁵ My 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.”

⁶ How 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?
⁷ Will 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?
⁸ He 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?

⁹ Yahweh’s voice calls to the city,
    and wisdom sees your name:
“Listen to the rod,
    and he who appointed it.
¹⁰ Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and a short ephah^[a] that is accursed?
¹¹ Shall I be pure with dishonest scales,
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹² Her rich men are full of violence,
    her inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.
¹³ Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound.
    I have made you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴ You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
    Your humiliation will be within you.
    You will store up, but not save;
    and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
¹⁵ You 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.
¹⁶ For the statutes of Omri are kept,
    and all the works of Ahab’s house.
    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.”