God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and sins: for
which they shall be punished.
6:1. Hear ye what the Lord saith: Arise, contend thou in judgment
against the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
The mountains, etc.... That is, the great ones, the princes of the
people.
6:2. Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong
foundations of the earth: for the Lord will enter into judgment with
his people, and he will plead against Israel.
6:3. O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I molested
thee? answer thou me.
6:4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee
out of the house of slaves: and I sent before thy face Moses, and
Aaron, and Mary.
6:5. O my people, remember, I pray thee, what Balach, the king of Moab,
purposed: and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, from Setim to
Galgal, that thou mightest know the justice of the Lord.
From Setim to Galgal.... He puts them in mind of the favour he did
them, in not suffering them to be quite destroyed by the evil purpose
of Balach, and the wicked counsel of Balaam: and then gives them a hint
of the wonders he wrought, in order to bring them into the land of
Promise, by stopping the course of the Jordan, in their march from
Setim to Galgal.
6:6. What shall I offer to the Lord that is worthy? wherewith shall I
kneel before the high God? shall I offer holocausts unto him, and
calves of a year old?
What shall I offer, etc.... This is spoken in the person of the people,
desiring to be informed what they are to do to please God.
6:7. May the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many
thousands of fat he goats? shall I give my firstborn for my wickedness,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
6:8. I will shew thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth
of thee: Verily to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk
solicitous with thy God.
6:9. The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and salvation shall be
to them that fear thy name: hear O ye tribes, and who shall approve it?
6:10. As yet there is a fire in the house of the wicked, the treasures
of iniquity, and a scant measure full of wrath.
Full of wrath, etc.... That is, highly provoking in the sight of God.
6:11. Shall I justify wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the
bag?
6:12. By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the
inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in
their mouth.
6:13. And I therefore began to strike thee with desolation for thy
sins.
6:14. Thou shalt eat, but shalt not be filled: and thy humiliation
shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not
save: and those whom thou shalt save, I will give up to the sword.
6:15. Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives,
but shalt not be anointed with the oil: and the new wine, but shalt not
drink the wine.
6:16. For thou hast kept the statutes of Amri, and all the works of the
house of Achab: and thou hast walked according to their wills, that I
should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing,
and you shall bear the reproach of my people.
The statutes of Amri, etc.... The wicked ways of Amri and Achab,
idolatrous kings.