The Hebrew Prophets

An oracle: the LORD’s word to Israel by Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD, “Yet I loved Jacob;

but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”

Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places”; thus says the LORD of Hosts, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever.”

Your eyes will see, and you will say, “The LORD is great—even beyond the border of Israel!”

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says the LORD of Hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘The LORD’s table is contemptible.’

When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“But you profane it, in that you say, ‘The LORD’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’

You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ and you have sniffed at it”, says the LORD of Hosts; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says the LORD.

“But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.

Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name.

The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.

For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

But you have turned aside out of the way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.