oremus Bible Browser

7  Hear, O my people, and I will speak: •
   ‘I will testify against you, O Israel;
      for I am God, your God.
8  ‘I will not reprove you for your sacrifices, •
   for your burnt offerings are always before me.
9  ‘I will take no bull out of your house, •
   nor he-goat out of your folds,
10  ‘For all the beasts of the forest are mine, •
   the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11  ‘I know every bird of the mountains •
   and the insect of the field is mine.
12  ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you, •
   for the whole world is mine and all that fills it.
13  ‘Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, •
   or drink the blood of goats?
14  ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving •
   and fulfil your vows to God Most High.
15  ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble; •
   I will deliver you and you shall honour me.’
16  But to the wicked, says God: •
   ‘Why do you recite my statutes
      and take my covenant upon your lips,
17  ‘Since you refuse to be disciplined •
   and have cast my words behind you?
18  ‘When you saw a thief, you made friends with him •
   and you threw in your lot with adulterers.
19  ‘You have loosed your lips for evil •
   and harnessed your tongue to deceit.
20  ‘You sit and speak evil of your brother; •
   you slander your own mother’s son.
21  ‘These things have you done, and should I keep silence? •
   Did you think that I am even such a one as yourself?
22  ‘But no, I must reprove you, •
   and set before your eyes the things that you have done.
23  ‘You that forget God, consider this well, •
   lest I tear you apart and there is none to deliver you.
24  ‘Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me •
   and to those who keep my way
      will I show the salvation of God.’