Chapter 6

  Hear, I pray you, that which Jehovah is saying: 'Rise -- strive thou with the mountains, And cause thou the hills to hear thy voice.'  

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  Hear, O mountains, the strife of Jehovah, Ye strong ones -- foundations of earth! For a strife [is] to Jehovah, with His people, And with Israel He doth reason.  

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  O My people, what have I done to thee? And what -- have I wearied thee? Testify against Me.  

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  For I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, And from the house of servants I have ransomed thee, And I send before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.  

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  O My people, remember, I pray you, What counsel did Balak king of Moab, What answer him did Balaam son of Beor, (From Shittim unto Gilgal,) In order to know the righteous acts of Jehovah.'  

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  With what do I come before Jehovah? Do I bow to God Most High? Do I come before Him with burnt-offerings? With calves -- sons of a year?  

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  Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams? With myriads of streams of oil? Do I give my first-born [for] my transgression? The fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul?  

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  He hath declared to thee, O man, what [is] good; Yea, what is Jehovah requiring of thee, Except -- to do judgment, and love kindness, And lowly to walk with thy God?  

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  A voice of Jehovah to the city calleth, And wisdom doth fear Thy name, Hear ye the rod, and Him who appointed it.  

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  Are there yet [in] the house of the wicked Treasures of wickedness, And the abhorred scanty ephah?  

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  Do I reckon [it] pure with balances of wickedness? And with a bag of deceitful stones?  

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  Whose rich ones have been full of violence, And its inhabitants have spoken falsehood, And their tongue [is] deceitful in their mouth.  

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  And I also, I have begun to smite thee, To make desolate, because of thy sins.  

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  Thou -- thou eatest, and thou art not satisfied, And thy pit [is] in thy midst, And thou removest, and dost not deliver, And that which thou deliverest, to a sword I give.  

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  Thou -- thou sowest, and thou dost not reap, Thou -- thou treadest the olive, And thou pourest not out oil, And new wine -- and thou drinkest not wine.  

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  And kept habitually are the statutes of Omri, And all the work of the house of Ahab, And ye do walk in their counsels, For My giving thee for a desolation, And its inhabitants for a hissing, And the reproach of My people ye do bear!  

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