God Challenges Israel

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.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and redeemed you from the house of slavery;

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

What God Requires

(Cp Am 5:24)

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 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 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?

Cheating and Violence to Be Punished

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 forgetb 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 Yourc wealthy are full of violence;

yourd inhabitants speak lies,

with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

13 Therefore I have begune 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 Omrif

and all the works of the house of Ahab,

and you have followed their counsels.

Therefore I will make you a desolation, and yourg inhabitants an object of hissing;

so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

The Total Corruption of the 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.a

4 The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of theirb sentinels, of theirc 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.

Penitence and Trust in God

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 judgment 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;d

now she will be trodden down

like the mire of the streets.

A Prophecy of Restoration

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 toe 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.

14 Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show usf marvelous things.

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed

of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

17 they shall lick dust like a snake,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their fortresses;

they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

and they shall stand in fear of you.

God’s Compassion and Steadfast Love

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of yourg possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

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 ourh 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.