Audite quæ Dominus loquitur: Surge, contende judicio adversum montes, et audiant colles vocem tuam.

Hear ye what the Lord saith: Arise, contend thou in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

Listen to this message I have from the Lord: Up, and to the mountains make thy complaint, let the hill-sides echo with thy voice!

Audiant montes judicium Domini, et fortia fundamenta terræ; quia judicium Domini cum populo suo, et cum Israël dijudicabitur.

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.

Listen they must, yonder sturdy bastions of earth, while the Lord impleads his people; Israel stands upon its trial now.

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut quid molestus fui tibi? Responde mihi.

O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I molested thee? answer thou me.

Tell me, my people, what have I done, that thou shouldst be a-weary of me? Answer me.

Quia eduxi te de terra Ægypti, et de domo servientium liberavi te, et misi ante faciem tuam Moysen, et Aaron, et Mariam.

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.

Was it ill done, to rescue thee from Egypt, set thee free from a slave’s prison, send Moses and Aaron and Mary to guide thee on thy way?

Popule meus, memento, quæso, quid cogitaverit Balach, rex Moab, et quid responderit ei Balaam, filius Beor, de Setim usque ad Galgalam, ut cognosceres justitias Domini.

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.

Bethink thee, what designs had Balach, king of Moab, and how Balaam the son of Beor answered him … from Setim to Galgala; and canst thou doubt, then, the faithfulness of the Lord’s friendship?

Quid dignum offeram Domino? curvabo genu Deo excelso? Numquid offeram ei holocautomata et vitulos anniculos?

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?

How best may I humble myself before the Lord, that is God most high? What offering shall I bring? Calf, think you, of a year old, for my burnt-sacrifice?

numquid placari potest Dominus in millibus arietum, aut in multis millibus hircorum pinguium? numquid dabo primogenitum meum pro scelere meo, fructum ventris mei pro peccato animæ meæ?

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?

Fall rams by the thousand, fattened buck-goats by the ten thousand, will the Lord be better pleased? Shall gift of first-born for wrong-doing atone, body’s fruit for soul’s assoiling?

Indicabo tibi, o homo, quid sit bonum, et quid Dominus requirat a te: utique facere judicium, et diligere misericordiam, et sollicitum ambulare cum Deo tuo.

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.

Nay, son of Adam, what need to ask? Best of all it is, and this above all the Lord demands of thee, right thou shouldst do, and ruth love, and carry thyself humbly in the presence of thy God.

Vox Domini ad civitatem clamat, et salus erit timentibus nomen tuum: audite, tribus, et quis approbabit illud?

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?

So comes the divine voice to yonder city; best he shall thrive, that stands in awe of thy name. Listen, tribesmen, to that voice; which of you dares acclaim it?

Adhuc ignis in domo impii thesauri iniquitatis, et mensura minor iræ plena.

As yet there is a fire in the house of the wicked, the treasures of iniquity, and a scant measure full of wrath.

What of homes unhallowed, that hide yet the ill-gotten gain, the false measure to call down my vengeance?

Numquid justificabo stateram impiam, et saccelli pondera dolosa?

Shall I justify wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the bag?

Here the uneven scales, there the bag of short weights, and shall I hold you acquitted?

In quibus divites ejus repleti sunt iniquitate, et habitantes in ea loquebantur mendacium, et lingua eorum fraudulenta in ore eorum.

By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth.

City where the rich are ever busy with oppression, where all is treachery, and a man has a tongue in his mouth only to deceive!

Et ego ergo cœpi percutere te perditione super peccatis tuis.

And I therefore began to strike thee with desolation for thy sins.

Thy turn, now, to feel my lash; thy guilt is thy undoing.

Tu comedes, et non saturaberis, et humiliatio tua in medio tui: et apprehendes, et non salvabis, et quos salvaveris, in gladium dabo.

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 whomthou shalt save, I will give up to the sword.

Thine to eat, and eating, never have thy fill; for all alike, now, the same affliction. Thine to enslave, but thy slaves never to keep; those thou hast, I mean to make over to the sword.

Tu seminabis, et non metes: tu calcabis olivam, et non ungeris oleo; et mustum, et non bibes vinum.

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.

Sow shalt thou, and never reap, press olive, and never anoint thee, tread grape, and no wine drink.

Et custodisti præcepta Amri, et omne opus domus Achab, et ambulasti in voluntatibus eorum: ut darem te in perditionem, et habitantes in ea in sibilum, et opprobrium populi mei portabitis.

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.

Commands of Amri thou wouldst obey, not mine, Ahab’s purposes, not mine, fulfil; their bidding if thou wouldst follow, what marvel that I should mark thee down for ruin, Jerusalem for the hiss of scorn? Shame of its own origins the people that is mine must bear.