6:1  HEAR NOW what the Lord says: Arise, contend {and} plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

6:2  Hear, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and you strong {and} enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy (a pleading contention) with His people, and He will [pleadingly] contend with Israel.

6:3  O My people, what have I done to you? And in what have I wearied you? Testify against Me [answer Me]!

6:4  For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house where you were bond servants, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

6:5  O My people, [earnestly] remember now what Balak king of Moab devised and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember what the Lord did for you] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous {and} saving acts of the Lord.

6:6  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?

6:7  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?

6:8  He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness {and} mercy, and to humble yourself {and} walk humbly with your God?

6:9  The voice of the Lord calls to the city [Jerusalem]--and it is sound wisdom to hear {and} fear Your name--Hear (heed) the rod and Him Who has appointed it.

6:10  Are there not still treasures gained by wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure [a false measure for grain] that is abominable {and} accursed?

6:11  Can I be pure [Myself, and acquit the man] with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?

6:12  For [the city's] rich men are full of violence; her inhabitants have spoken lies and their tongues are deceitful in their mouths.

6:13  Therefore I have also smitten you with a deadly wound {and} made you sick, laying you desolate, waste, {and} deserted because of your sins.

6:14  You shall eat but not be satisfied, and your emptiness {and} hunger shall remain in you; you shall carry away [goods and those you love] but fail to save them, and those you do deliver I will give to the sword.

6:15  You shall sow but not reap; you shall tread olives but not anoint yourselves with oil, and [you shall extract juice from] the grapes but not drink the wine.

6:16  For the statutes of [idolatrous] Omri you have kept, and all the works of the house of [wicked] Ahab, and you walk in their counsels. Therefore I will make you a desolation {and} an astonishment and your [city's] inhabitants a hissing, and you shall bear the reproach {and} scorn of My people.