1. HEAR NOW what the Lord says: Arise, contend and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2. Hear, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and you strong and enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy (a pleading contention) with His people, and He will [pleadingly] contend with Israel.
3. O My people, what have I done to you? And in what have I wearied you? Testify against Me [answer Me]!
4. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house where you were bond servants, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5. O My people, [earnestly] remember now what Balak king of Moab devised and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember what the Lord did for you] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous and saving acts of the Lord. [Num. 23:7-24; 24:3-24; Josh. 3:1; 4:19.]
6. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8. He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God? [Deut. 10:12, 13.]
9. The voice of the Lord calls to the city [Jerusalem]–and it is sound wisdom to hear and fear Your name–Hear (heed) the rod and Him Who has appointed it.
10. Are there not still treasures gained by wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure [a false measure for grain] that is abominable and accursed?
11. Can I be pure [Myself, and acquit the man] with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? [I Thess. 4:6.]