Micah, 6

¹ Hear, please, YOU people, what Jehovah is saying.^*1 Get up, conduct a legal case with the mountains, and may the hills hear your voice.

² Hear, O YOU mountains, the legal case of Jehovah, also YOU durable objects, YOU foundations of [the] earth; for Jehovah has a legal case with his people, and it is with Israel that he will argue:

³ “O my people, what have I done to you? And in what way have I tired you out? Testify against me.

⁴ For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of slaves I redeemed you; and I proceeded to send before you Moses, Aaron and Mirʹi·am.

⁵ O my people, remember, please, what Baʹlak the king of Moʹab counseled, and what Baʹlaam the son of Beʹor answered him. From Shitʹtim^*1 it was, all the way to Gilʹgal, to the intent that the righteous acts of Jehovah might be known.”

⁶ With what shall I confront Jehovah? [With what] shall I bow myself to God on high? Shall I confront him with whole burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷ Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn son for my revolt, the fruitage of my belly for the sin of my soul?

⁸ He has told you, O earthling man,^*1 what is good. And what is Jehovah asking back from you but to exercise justice and to love kindness^*2 and to be modest in walking with your God?

⁹ To the city the very voice of Jehovah calls out, and [the person of] practical wisdom will fear your name. Hear [the] rod and who it was that designated it,^*1 O YOU people.

¹⁰ Do there yet exist [in] the house of a wicked one the treasures of wickedness, and the scrimped eʹphah measure that is denounced?

¹¹ Can I be [morally] clean with wicked scales and with a bag of deceptive stone weights?

¹² For her own rich men have become full of violence, and her own inhabitants have spoken falsehood, and their tongue is tricky in their mouth.

¹³ “And I also, for my part, shall certainly make [you] sick by striking you; there will be a desolating [of you], on account of your sins.

¹⁴ You, for your part, will eat and not get satisfied, and your emptiness will be in the midst of you.^*1 And you will remove [things], but you will not carry [them] safely away; and whatever you would carry away safely, I shall give to the sword itself.

¹⁵ You, for your part, will sow seed, but you will not reap. You, for your part, will tread olives, but you will not grease yourself with oil; also sweet wine, but you will not drink wine.

¹⁶ And the statutes of Omʹri and all the work of the house of Aʹhab are observed, and YOU people walk in their counsels; to the end that I may make you an object of astonishment and her inhabitants something to be whistled at; and the reproach of peoples^*1 YOU men will bear.”