6 Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

² Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

³ O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.

⁴ For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵ O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.

⁶ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten 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 hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

⁹ The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹³ Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

¹⁴ Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

¹⁵ Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.

¹⁶ For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

5 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

² The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

⁴ For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

⁵ But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

⁶ Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

⁷ Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

⁸ Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

⁹ That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

¹² For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

¹³ Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

¹⁵ Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

¹⁸ Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

²⁰ Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

²² Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

²³ Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

²⁴ But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

²⁵ Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶ But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.