6 So listen now to what Adonai says:
“Stand up and state your case to the mountains,
let the hills hear what you have to say.”
² Listen, mountains, to Adonai’s case;
also you enduring rocks that support the earth!
Adonai has a case against his people;
he wants to argue it out with Isra’el:
³ “My people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ I brought you up from the land of Egypt.
I redeemed you from a life of slavery.
I sent Moshe, Aharon
and Miryam to lead you.
⁵ My people, just remember what Balak
the king of Mo’av had planned,
what Bil‘am the son of B‘or answered him,
[and what happened] between Sheetim and Gilgal —
so that you will understand
the saving deeds of Adonai.”
⁶ “With what can I come before Adonai
to bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt offerings?
with calves in their first year?
⁷ Would Adonai take delight in thousands of rams
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

⁸ Human being, you have already been told
what is good, what Adonai demands of you —
no more than to act justly, love grace
and walk in purity with your God.

⁹ The voice of Adonai! He calls to the city —
and it is wisdom to fear your name —
“Listen to the rod and to him who commissioned it.
¹⁰ Are there still ill-gotten gains in the house of the wicked?
still the detestable short eifah-measure?
¹¹ Should I declare innocent wicked scales
and a bag of fraudulent weights?
¹² The rich men there are full of violence,
the inhabitants tell lies,
with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

¹³ “Therefore, I am starting to strike you down,
to destroy you because of your sins.
¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied,
with hunger gnawing inside you.
You will conceive but not give birth;
if you do give birth, I will give him to the sword.
¹⁵ You will sow but will not reap,
you will press olives but not rub yourself with oil,
likewise you will press grapes but not drink the wine.
¹⁶ For you keep the regulations of ‘Omri
and all the practices of the house of Ach’av,
modeling yourselves on their advice.
Therefore I will make you an object of horror,
the inhabitants of this city a cause for contempt;
you will suffer the insults aimed at my people.”

7 Woe to me! for I have become
like the leavings of summer fruit,
like the gleanings when the vintage is finished —
there isn’t a cluster worth eating,
no early-ripened fig that appeals to me.
² The godly have been destroyed from the land,
there is no one upright among humankind.
They all lie in wait for blood,
each hunts his brother with a net.
³ Their hands do evil well.
The prince makes his request,
the judge grants it for a price,
and the great man expresses his evil desires —
thus they weave it together.
⁴ The best of them is a briar,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The time of your watchmen — of your punishment — has come;
now they will be confused.
⁵ Don’t trust in your neighbor;
don’t put confidence in a close friend;
shut the gates of your mouth even from [your wife],
lying there with you in bed.
⁶ For a son insults his father,
a daughter rises against her mother,
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law —
a person’s enemies are the members of his own household.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to Adonai,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
⁸ Enemies of mine, don’t gloat over me!
Although I have fallen, I will rise;
though I live in the dark, Adonai is my light.
⁹ I will endure Adonai’s rage,
because I sinned against him;
until he pleads my cause
and judges in my favor.
Then he will bring me out to the light,
and I will see his justice.
¹⁰ My enemies will see it too,
and shame will cover those
who said to me, “Where is Adonai your God?”
I will gloat over them,
as they are trampled underfoot
like mud in the streets.

¹¹ That will be the day for rebuilding your walls,
a day for expanding your territory,
¹² a day when [your] people will come [back] to you
from Ashur and from the cities of Egypt,
from Egypt and from as far as the Euphrates River,
and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ The earth will be desolate for those living in it,
as a result of their deeds.
¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that belongs to you,
who live alone, like a forest
in the middle of a fertile pasture.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gil‘ad,
as they did in days of old.
¹⁵ “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
I will show them wonders.”
¹⁶ The nations will see and be put to shame,
in spite of all their power.
They will cover their mouths with their hands,
and their ears will be deafened.
¹⁷ They will lick the dust like snakes;
they will emerge from their fortresses trembling
like reptiles that crawl about on the earth;
they will come with fear to Adonai our God,
afraid because of you.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you,
pardoning the sin and overlooking the crimes
of the remnant of his heritage?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in grace.
¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us,
he will subdue our iniquities.
You will throw all their sins
into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show truth to Ya‘akov
and grace to Avraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors
since days of long ago.