The Book of
Malachi, chapter 1
1: The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2: "I have loved you," says the Lord. But you say,
"How hast Thou loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's
brother?" says the Lord. "Yet I have loved Jacob
3: but I have hated Esau; I have laid waste his hill country and
left his heritage to jackals of the desert."
4: If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the
ruins," the Lord of hosts says, "They may build, but I will
tear down, till they are called the wicked country, the people with whom
the Lord is angry for ever."
5: Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great
is the Lord, beyond the border of Israel!"
6: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If
then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My
fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise My name. You
say, `How have we despised Thy name?'
7: By offering polluted food upon My altar. And you say, `How
have we polluted it?' By thinking that the Lord's table may be despised.
8: When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that no evil?
And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that no evil? Present
that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor?
says the Lord of hosts.
9: And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to
us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you?
says the Lord of hosts.
10: Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors,
that you might not kindle fire upon My altar in vain! I have no pleasure
in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from
your hand.
11: For from the rising of the sun to its setting My name is
great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to My
name, and a pure offering; for My name is great among the nations, says
the Lord of hosts.
12: But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is
polluted, and the food for it may be despised.
13: `What a weariness this is,' you say, and you sniff at Me,
says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is
lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that
from your hand? says the Lord.
14: Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it,
and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King,
says the Lord of hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.
The Book of
Malachi, chapter 2
1: "And now, O priests, this command is for you.
2: If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to
give glory to My name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the
curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already
cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.
3: Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung upon
your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of My
presence.
4: So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that
My covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts.
5: My covenant with him was a covenant of life and peace, and I
gave them to him, that he might fear; and he feared Me, he stood in awe
of My name.
6: True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on
his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many
from iniquity.
7: For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men
should seek instruction from His mouth, for he is the messenger of the
Lord of hosts.
8: But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many
to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
says the Lord of hosts,
9: and so I make you despised and abased before all the people,
inasmuch as you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in your
instruction."
10: Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why
then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our
fathers?
11: Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed
in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the
Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12: May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, for the man who
does this, any to witness or answer, or to bring an offering to the Lord
of hosts!
13: And this again you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears,
with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or
accepts it with favor at your hand.
14: You ask, "Why does he not?" Because the Lord was
witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom
you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by
covenant.
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15:
Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And
what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and
let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.
16: "For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel,
and covering one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So
take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless."
17: You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say,
"How have we wearied Him?" By saying, "Every one who does
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them." Or
by asking, "Where is the God of justice?"
The Book of
Malachi, chapter 3
1: "Behold, I send My messenger to prepare the way before
Me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the
messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts.
2: But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand
when he appears? "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers'
soap;
3: he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will
purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they
present right offerings to the Lord.
4: Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to
the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5: "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against
those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his
wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the
sojourner, and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts.
6: "For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O sons of
Jacob, are not consumed.
7: From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My
statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,
says the Lord of hosts. But you say, `How shall we return?'
8: Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you say, `How
are we robbing thee?' In your tithes and offerings.
9: You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me; the whole
nation of you.
10: Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
food in My house; and thereby put Me to the test, says the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down
for you an overflowing blessing.
11: I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not
destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not
fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
12: Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a
land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
13: "Your words have been stout against Me, says the Lord.
Yet you say, `How have we spoken against Thee?'
14: You have said, `It is vain to serve God. What is the good of
our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of
hosts?
15: Henceforth we deem the arrogant blessed; evildoers not only
prosper but when they put God to the test they escape.'"
16: Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the
Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before
him of those who feared the Lord and thought on his name.
17: "They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, My special
possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as a man spares
his son who serves him.
18: Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous
and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve
him.
The Book of
Malachi, chapter 4
1: "For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when
all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes
shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them
neither root nor branch.
2: But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness shall
rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves
from the stall.
3: And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes
under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of
hosts.
4: "Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and
ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5: "Behold, I will send you Eli'jah the prophet before the
great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
6: And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and
the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land
with a curse."
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