Micah 6

God accuses his people

1Now listen to what the Lord says: ‘Stand up! Explain in front of the mountains what I want to say. Speak loud so that the hills can hear your voice.

2Listen, you mountains. Hear this, you strong places that have always been there deep in the earth. The Lord has a quarrel with Israel's people. Hear the reasons why the Lord is angry with you, his people.’

3‘My people, what bad thing have I done to you?’ God asks. ‘How have I made you tired of me? Answer me.

4I brought you out of Egypt. You were slaves in that country, but I made you free people. I sent Moses to lead you, and Aaron and Miriam with him.

How God wants his people to please him

5My people, please remember the bad things that King Balak of Moab tried to do. And remember what Balaam, Beor's son, answered him. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal. Then you will remember that I, the Lord, do good things.’

6‘I come to meet with the Lord,’ you say. ‘I must know what to bring when I come. I bend down to worship him. I must know what to offer when I bend down. He is God and he is greater than everything. Perhaps he would like it if I burn young cows one year old for him.

7He might be happy with thousands of male sheep, or ten thousand rivers of olive oil. I have not obeyed God. I might even kill and burn my oldest son, because of that. I have done wrong things and I must pay God for that. Perhaps, if I give my own child to him, that will be enough to pay.’

God will punish wicked people

8But God has told us what is good. This is what the Lord wants from us: ‘You must be fair to other people,’ God says. ‘You must want to be kind. And you must be careful to do what I show you.’

9The Lord shouts to the people in the city of Jerusalem. So it is good for us to listen carefully to what he says. ‘Listen to me, because I have the authority to punish you,’ God says.

10‘You bad people still hide valuable things that you have taken from other people. I will not forget this. You bad people use false weights to measure the food that you sell. I hate that.

11I will not excuse you people who use false weights. You are not being honest if you weigh things like that.

12You rich people in the city are very cruel. Everyone there says things that are not true. All of them speak false words.

13So I will make you so sick that you will never get well. I have begun to destroy you because you have done bad things.

14You will eat, but you will still feel hungry. You will store things and you will try to keep them safe. But you will fail to save them. I will cause enemies to destroy all your things in the war.

15You will plant seeds, but you will not bring in the harvest. You will crush olives, but you will not use the olive oil for yourselves. You will crush grapes, but you will not drink the wine from them.

16You have obeyed the rules of King Omri. You have done what King Ahab and all his people did. You have copied their wicked ideas. So I must destroy you and all your things completely. Then people from other countries will not be kind or polite to you. Instead, they will make you ashamed.’