• 1. Heare yee now what the Lord saith, Arise, contend thou before the mountaines, and let the hilles heare thy voice.
  • 2. Heare yee, O mountaines, the Lords controuersie, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controuersie with his people, and he will pleade with Israel.
  • 3. O my people, what haue I done vnto thee, and wherein haue I wearied thee? Testifie against me.
  • 4. For I brought thee vp out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of seruants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam.
  • 5. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the sonne of Beor answered him from Shittim vnto Gilgal, that yee may know the righteousnesse of the Lord.
  • 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow my selfe before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calues of a yeere olde?
  • 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rammes, or with tenne thousands of riuers of oyle? Shall I giue my first borne for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule?
  • 8. Hee hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doeth the Lord require of thee, but to do iustly, and to loue mercy, and to walke humbly with thy God?
  • 9. The Lords voice cryeth vnto the citie, and the man of wisedome shall see thy Name: heare ye the rodde, and who hath appointed it.
  • 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable.
  • 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitfull weights?
  • 12. For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof haue spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth.
  • 13. Therefore also will I make thee sicke in smiting thee, in making thee desolate, because of thy sinnes.
  • 14. Thou shalt eate, but not be satisfied, and thy casting downe shall be in the midst of thee, and thou shalt take holde, but shalt not deliuer: & that which thou deliuerest, will I giue vp to the sword.
  • 15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reape: thou shalt tread the oliues, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oile; & sweet wine, but shalt not drinke wine.
  • 16. For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the workes of the house of Ahab, and ye walke in their counsels, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore yee shall beare the reproch of my people.