Mal'akhi, starting at chapter 1
{1:1} An oracle: the word of the LORD to Yisra'el by Mal'akhi.
{1:2} "I have loved you," says the LORD.
Yet you say, "How have you loved us?"
"Wasn't Esav Ya`akov's brother?" says the LORD, "Yet I loved
Ya`akov; {1:3} but Esav I hated, and made his mountains a desolation,
and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness." {1:4} 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."
{1:5} Your eyes will see, and you will say, "The LORD is great--even
beyond the border of Yisra'el!"
{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, [1>]Kohanim[<1], who
despise my name. You say, 'How have we despised your name?' {1:7} You
offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, 'How have we polluted you?'
In that you say, 'The LORD's table contemptible.' {1:8} 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.
{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. {1:11} 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. {1:12} "But
you profane it, in that you say, 'The LORD's table is polluted, and
its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.' {1:13} 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.
{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 [1>]Kohanim[<1], this [2>]mitzvah[<2] is for you.
{2:2} 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. {2:3} 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. {2:4} You will know
that I have sent this [3>]mitzvah[<3] to you, that my covenant may be
with Levi," says the LORD of Hosts. {2:5} "My covenant was with him of
life and shalom; 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.
{2:6} The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not
found in his lips. He walked with me in shalom and uprightness, and
turned many away from iniquity. {2:7} For the [4>]Kohen[<4]'s lips
should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for
he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts. {2:8} 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. {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. {2:10} 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? {2:11}
Yehudah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in
Yisra'el and in Yerushalayim; for Yehudah has profaned the holiness of
the LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign
god. {2:12} The LORD will cut off, to the man who does this, him who
wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Ya`akov, and him who
offers an offering to the LORD of Hosts. {2:13} This 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. {2:14} Yet 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. {2:15} Did 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. {2:16} For I hate
divorce," says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, "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. {2:17} You 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; {3:3} and 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. {3:4} Then the offering of Yehudah and
Yerushalayim will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, and
as in ancient years. {3:5} I 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
Ya`akov, are not consumed. {3:7} From 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 Hosts. "But you
say, 'How shall we return?' {3:8} Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me!
But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings. {3:9}
You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.
{3:10} Bring 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. {3:11} I 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?' {3:14} You 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?
{3:15} Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are
built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.' {3:16} Then 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. {3:17} They 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. {3:18}
Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.
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Footnotes:
[1] {1:6} priests
[1] {2:1} priests
[2] {2:1} commandment
[3] {2:4} commandment
[4] {2:7} priest
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