God Challenges Israel

6 Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
² Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

³ “O my people, what have I done to you?
    In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
    and redeemed you from the house of bondage;
and I sent before you Moses,
    Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
    and what Balaam the son of Be′or answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

What God Requires

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,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born 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 justice, and to love kindness,^[a]
    and to walk humbly with your God?

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