1 ADONAI our God speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
3 ADONAI comes and won’t be silent: a devouring fire goes before God, while storms rage all around.
4 God summons heaven and earth to the trial of God’s people:
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones, who make their covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6 The heavens affirm God’s justice because it is God who is the judge! –– Selah ––
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak! Hear, O Israel, and I will testify against you! I am God–your God.
8 I don’t fault you for your sacrifices– on the contrary, your burnt offerings are always before me.
9 I don’t need oxen from your stall, or goats from your folds,
10 since every beast of the forest is mine already; I have cattle on a thousand hills!
11 I know every bird in the mountains, and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 If I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of oxen, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer me a sacrifice of thanksgiving instead, and fulfill the vow you make to me!
15 Then call upon me in the day of trouble– I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the corrupt God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
17 For you hate discipline, and you throw away my words as if they were trash.
18 If you see a thief, you join in the thieving; and you cheat alongside other adulterers.
19 You give your mouth free reign for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your sisters and brothers, and you slander your own siblings.
21 I didn’t say a word while you did those things– you thought that I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.
22 So consider this, you who forget me– or I’ll tear you to pieces with no hope of rescue!
23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me and prepare my road. To these I will reveal my salvation.”
