Micah 6-7

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

6 Hear what the Lord says:
    Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
² Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

⁶ ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

⁹ The voice of the Lord cries to the city
    (it is sound wisdom to fear your name):
Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!^[a]
10     Can I forget^[b] the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
¹¹ Can I tolerate wicked scales
    and a bag of dishonest weights?
¹² Your^[c] wealthy are full of violence;
    your^[d] inhabitants speak lies,
    with tongues of deceit in their mouths.
¹³ Therefore I have begun^[e] to strike you down,
    making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴ You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not save,
    and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.
¹⁵ You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
¹⁶ For you have kept the statutes of Omri^[f]
    and all the works of the house of Ahab,
    and you have followed their counsels.
Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your^[g] inhabitants an object of hissing;
    so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

7 Woe is me! For I have become like one who,
    after the summer fruit has been gathered,
    after the vintage has been gleaned,
finds no cluster to eat;
    there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.
² The faithful have disappeared from the land,
    and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
    and they hunt each other with nets.
³ Their hands are skilled to do evil;
    the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
    thus they pervert justice.^[h]
4 The best of them is like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their^[i] sentinels, of their^[j] punishment, has come;
    now their confusion is at hand.
⁵ Put no trust in a friend,
    have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your embrace;
⁶ for the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    your enemies are members of your own household.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
    I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.

⁸ Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy;
    when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
⁹ I must bear the indignation of the Lord,
    because I have sinned against him,
until he takes my side
    and executes judgement for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall see his vindication.
¹⁰ Then my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who said to me,
    ‘Where is the Lord your God?’
My eyes will see her downfall;^[k]
    now she will be trodden down
    like the mire of the streets.

¹¹ A day for the building of your walls!
    In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
¹² In that day they will come to you
    from Assyria to^[l] Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
    from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ But the earth will be desolate
    because of its inhabitants,
    for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
    and passing over the transgression
    of the remnant of your^[n] possession?
He does not retain his anger for ever,
    because he delights in showing clemency.
¹⁹ He will again have compassion upon us;
    he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our^[o] sins
    into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors
    from the days of old.