What response follows the questions about offerings?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Remembered deliverance and offering questions precede judgment, mercy, solicitous walking and fraud accusations.

Chapter breakdown

The heading names God’s dispute with the Jews over ingratitude and sins. The call to contend against mountains and speak to hills is explained by the edition as addressing great ones and princes. Mountains and earth’s foundations hear God’s judgment with Israel. God asks what harm he has done, recalling deliverance from Egyptian slavery and sending Moses, Aaron and Mary. Balach’s purpose and Balaam’s reply from Setim to Galgal are recalled. The note emphasizes preservation despite Balach’s evil purpose and Balaam’s wicked counsel, then the stopped Jordan on the march toward the promised land.

Questions ask about worthy offerings: holocausts, yearling calves, thousands of rams, many thousands of fat he-goats and a firstborn for sin. The edition identifies the questioner as the people seeking how to please God. The response names doing judgment, loving mercy and walking solicitous with God. The voice cries to the city, salvation is to those fearing the name, and tribes are called to hear.

Fire remains in the wicked house, with treasures of iniquity and a scant wrath-filled measure, explained as provoking God. Wicked balances, deceitful bag weights, rich men’s iniquity and lying tongues are accused. Desolation begins for sins: eating without fullness, humiliation, taking hold without saving, and those saved given to the sword. Sowing brings no reaping; treading olives no anointing, and new wine no drinking. Keeping Amri’s statutes and Achab’s works brings desolation, hissing and the reproach of God’s people. The edition identifies these as the idolatrous kings’ wicked ways.

The story inside

Mary accompanies Moses and Aaron. The edition recalls the stopped Jordan. The offering question names fat he-goats.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Mary accompanies Moses and Aaron.
2
The edition recalls the stopped Jordan.
3
The offering question names fat he-goats.

Test your recall

Whose reproach appears at the ending?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 101859–101874
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.
Lines 101876–101885
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.
Lines 101887–101900
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.
Lines 101902–101915
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.
Lines 101917–101926
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.
Lines 101928–101934
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.