¹Hear, please, what Yahweh is saying: Rise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

²Hear, mountains, the dispute of Yahweh, and you enduring foundations of the land; for Yahweh has a dispute with his people, and with Israel he will argue.

³My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against me.

⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slaves; and I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.

⁵My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab advised, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, so as to know the righteousness of Yahweh.

⁶With what shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself down to the God of the height? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my belly for the sin of my being?

⁸He has told you, O man, what is good; and what is Yahweh requiring from you, but to do justice and to love loyal love and to walk modestly with your God?

⁹The voice of Yahweh calls out to the city, and sound wisdom will see your name. Hear, you rod, and whoever has appointed it.

¹⁰Is there still, in the house of the wicked, the stores of wickedness and a scant ephah that is denounced?

¹¹Can I be clear with scales of wickedness, and with a bag of stone weights of deceit?

¹²Her rich are full of violence, and her dwellers speak falsehood, and their tongue is deceit in their mouth.

¹³And I, too, have made you sick by striking you, laying you desolate for your sins.

¹⁴You will eat, but not be satisfied, and your emptiness will be in your midst; you will carry things away, but not bring them to safety, and what you bring to safety I will give to the sword.

¹⁵You will sow, but you will not reap; you will tread the olive, but you will not anoint yourself with oil; and the new wine, but you will not drink wine.

¹⁶And the statutes of Omri are kept, and every deed of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels, so that I make you a desolation, and her dwellers a hissing; and you will bear the reproach of my people.