1:1An oracle: the word of THE LORD to
Israel by Malachi.
1:2"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; 1:3but Esau I hated, and made his
mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the
wilderness." 1:4Whereas 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."
1:5Your eyes will see, and you will
say, "THE LORD is great--even beyond the border of Israel!"
1:6"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?'
1:7You offer polluted bread on my
altar. You say, 'How have we polluted you?' In that you say, 'THE LORD's
table contemptible.' 1:8When 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.
1:9"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.
1:10"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. 1:11For 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
Armies. 1:12"But you profane it, in that
you say, 'THE LORD's table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is
contemptible.' 1:13You 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.
1:14"But the deceiver is cursed,
who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a
blemished thing; for I am a great King," says THE LORD of hosts,
"and my name is awesome among the nations."
2:1"Now, you priests, this
commandment is for you. 2:2If you will not listen, and if you
will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name," says THE LORD of
Armies, "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. 2:3Behold, 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. 2:4You will know that I have sent
this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi," says
THE LORD of Hosts. 2:5"My covenant was with him of
life and peace; and I gave them to him who he might be reverent toward me;
and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. 2:6The 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. 2:7For 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. 2:8But 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. 2:9"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. 2:10Don'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? 2:11Judah 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. 2:12THE LORD will
cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out
of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to THE LORD of Hosts.
2:13This again you do: you cover the
altar of THE LORD with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he
doesn't regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will
at your hand. 2:14Yet you say, 'Why?' Because
THE LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against
whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the
wife of your covenant. 2:15Did he not make one, although he
had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife
of his youth. 2:16For I hate divorce," says
THE LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with
violence!' says THE LORD of Hosts. "Therefore take heed to your
spirit, that you don't deal treacherously. 2:17You have
wearied THE LORD with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?' In
that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of THE LORD, and
he delights in them;' or 'Where is the God of justice?'
3:1"Behold, I send my messenger,
and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will
suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you
desire, behold, he comes!" says THE LORD of hosts. 3:2"But
who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire, and like launderer's soap; 3:3and he will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them
as gold and silver; and they shall offer to THE LORD offerings in
righteousness. 3:4Then the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem will be pleasant to THE LORD, as in the days of old, and as in
ancient years. 3:5I will come near to you to
judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against
the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress
the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive
the foreigner of justice, and don't fear me," says THE LORD of Hosts.
3:6"For I, THE LORD, don't change;
therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 3:7From the
days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says THE LORD
of Armies. "But you say, 'How shall we return?' 3:8Will a man
rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes
and offerings. 3:9You are cursed with the curse; for
you rob me, even this whole nation. 3:10Bring the
whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and
test me now in this," says THE LORD of hosts, "if I will not open
you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall
not be room enough for. 3:11I will rebuke the devourer for
your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither
shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field," says
THE LORD of Hosts. 3:12"All nations shall call you
blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says THE LORD of Hosts.
3:13"Your words have been stout
against me," says THE LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken
against you?' 3:14You have said, 'It is vain to
serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that
we have walked mournfully before THE LORD of Hosts? 3:15Now we call
the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they
tempt God, and escape.' 3:16Then those who feared THE LORD
spoke one with another; and THE LORD listened, and heard, and a book of
memory was written before him, for those who feared THE LORD, and who
honored his name. 3:17They shall be mine," says
THE LORD of Hosts, "my own possession in the day that I make, and I
will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. 3:18Then you shall return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him
who doesn't serve him.
4:1"For, behold, the day comes,
it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness,
will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up," says
THE LORD of Hosts, "that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
4:2But to you who fear my name shall
the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out,
and leap like calves of the stall. 4:3You shall
tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet
in the day that I make," says THE LORD of Hosts.
4:4"Remember the law of Moses my
servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes
and ordinances. 4:5Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and terrible day of THE LORD comes. 4:6He will turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."
