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. |