Chapter 6

  Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills.  

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  Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against his people, and he will take it up with Israel.  

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  O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a weariness to you? give answer against me.  

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  For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.  

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  O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by Balak, king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor, gave him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be certain of the upright acts of the Lord.  

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  With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head before the high God? am I to come before him with burned offerings, with young oxen a year old?  

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  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  

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  He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.  

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  The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear, you tribes and the meeting of the town.  

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  Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my memory, and the short measure, which is cursed?  

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  Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of false weights go without punishment?  

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  For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.  

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  So I have made a start with your punishment; I have made you waste because of your sins.  

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  You will have food, but not enough; your shame will be ever with you: you will get your goods moved, but you will not take them away safely; and what you do take away I will give to the sword.  

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  You will put in seed, but you will not get in the grain; you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be rubbed with the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you will have no wine.  

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  For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the family of Ahab, and you have been guided by their designs: so that I might make you a cause of wonder and your people a cause of hisses; and the shame of my people will be on you.  

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