⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,^(A)
    stained with footprints of blood.
⁹ As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,^(B)
    so do bands of priests;
they murder^(C) on the road to Shechem,
    carrying out their wicked schemes.^(D)
10 I have seen a horrible^(E) thing in Israel:
    There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
    Israel is defiled.^(F)

²¹ “I hate,^(A) I despise your religious festivals;^(B)
    your assemblies^(C) are a stench to me.
²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings^(D) and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.^(E)
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.^(F)
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.^(G)
24 But let justice^(H) roll on like a river,
    righteousness^(I) like a never-failing stream!^(J)

²⁵ “Did you bring me sacrifices^(K) and offerings
    forty years^(L) in the wilderness, people of Israel?
²⁶ You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
    the pedestal of your idols,^(M)
    the star of your god^[a]—
    which you made for yourselves.
²⁷ Therefore I will send you into exile^(N) beyond Damascus,”
    says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.^(O)