LXX Malachi

The Lord’s Love for Israel

1 An oracle of the Lord’s message to Israel by the hand of his messenger.⁠a Put it on your hearts now.

2 I loved you, says the Lord. And you said, “How did you love us?” Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? says the Lord. And I loved Jacob, 3 and hated Esau and made his borders a wasteland, and made his inheritance into gifts of the wilderness.⁠b

4 For Idumea will say, “It has been overthrown, but let us return and rebuild the desolate places.” The Lord Almighty says this: They will build, and I will tear down. They will be called borders of lawlessness and a people against whom the Lord is drawn up for battle forever. 5 And your eyes will see, and you will say, “The Lord has been made great beyond Israel’s borders.”

The Priests and the Offerings

6 A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord Almighty. You priests despise my name, yet you said, “How did we despise your name?” 7 By bringing defiled loaves to my altar. And you said, “How did we defile them?” By saying, “The Lord’s table is despised, and the food placed on it is despised.” 8 For if you bring a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you bring a lame or sick one, is it not evil? Offer it now to your governor, and see if he will accept it, if he will receive your face, says the Lord Almighty.

9 And now appease the face of your God and beg him. These things have been done by your hands. Will I receive your faces from you? says the Lord Almighty. 10 Because even among you the doors will be shut, and you will not light my altar for nothing. I have no desire among you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands.

11 For from sunrise to sunset my name has been glorified 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 Almighty.

12 But you profane it, by saying, “The Lord’s table is defiled, and his food placed on it is despised.” 13 And you said, “These things come from hardship,” and I have blown them away, says the Lord Almighty.⁠c And you were bringing in things seized by violence, lame things and sick things. If you bring the offering, will I accept them from your hands? says the Lord Almighty.

14 And cursed is the one who was able and had a male in his flock, and whose vow is on him, and who sacrifices something spoiled to the Lord, for I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is notable among the nations.

The Priests and Levi’s Covenant

1 And now, priests, this command is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not put it in your heart, to give glory to my name, says the Lord Almighty, then I will send the curse on you, and I will put a curse on your blessing. Yes, I will curse it, and I will scatter your blessing, and it will not be among you, because you do not put it in your heart. 3 Look, I am separating the shoulder from you,⁠a and I will scatter stomachs on your faces, the stomachs of your festivals, and I will take you to the same place.

4 And you will know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant might be with the Levites, says the Lord Almighty. 5 My covenant of life and peace was with him, and I gave it to him in fear, to fear me and to shrink back from the presence of my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found in his lips. He walked straight with me in peace, and he turned many from injustice.

7 For a priest’s lips will guard knowledge, and they will seek law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty. 8 But you have turned aside from the way, and made many weak in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord Almighty. 9 And I have made you despised and disregarded among all the nations, because you have not kept my ways, but showed favoritism in the law.

Abandoning the Covenant

10 Didn’t one God create you? Isn’t there one father of you all? Why has each of you abandoned his brother, to profane the covenant of your ancestors? 11 Judah was abandoned, and an abomination occurred in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the holy things of the Lord, which he loved, and pursued foreign gods. 12 The Lord will destroy the person doing these things, until he is even humbled from the tents of Jacob, and from among those who offer sacrifice to the Lord Almighty.

13 And you kept doing these things that I hated. You covered the Lord’s altar with tears, and with weeping and groaning because of hard work. Is it still fitting to look at a sacrifice or accept something pleasing from your hands? 14 Yet you said, “Why?” Because the Lord testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you abandoned, and yet she is your partner, and the wife of your covenant.

15 And no one else did it, and a remnant of his spirit.⁠b And you said, “What else does God seek but offspring?” And guard your spirit, and do not abandon the wife of your youth. 16 But if you hate her and send her away,⁠c says the Lord God of Israel, then irreverence will cover your thoughts, says the Lord Almighty. And guard your spirit and do not abandon.

Provoking God

17 You provoke God with your words. But you said, “How did we provoke him?” By saying, “Everyone doing evil is good before the Lord, and he delighted in them,” and, “Where is the God of justice?”

The Messenger and the Lord’s Coming

1 Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will inspect the way before my face,⁠a and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come into his own temple,⁠b and the messenger of the covenant, whom you want, look, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty. 2 And who will endure the day of his coming? Or who can stand when he appears? For he is coming in like a furnace’s fire and like the herb used by launderers. 3 He will sit, smelting and purifying like silver and like gold, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and pour them like gold and like silver, and they will bring the Lord an offering in righteousness. 4 And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of long ago and as in earlier years.

5 And I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the women practicing sorcery, and against the women committing adultery, and against those who swear falsely by my name, and against those who withhold the hired worker’s wages, and those who oppress the widow, and strike orphans, and who turn aside justice for the resident foreigner, and do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.

Return to the Lord

6 For I am the Lord your God, and I have not changed, but you, the sons of Jacob, do not keep away 7 from the injustices of your ancestors. You turned aside from my laws and did not keep them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you said, “How should we return?”

8 Will a person trip God up? For you are tripping me up. And you will say, “How have we tripped you up?” Because the tithes and firstfruits are still with you. 9 And you keep looking away, and you trip me up. The nation has been brought to an end.

10 And you brought all the produce into the storehouses, and his captured goods will be in his house. Observe now by this, says the Lord Almighty, see if I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out my blessing on you, until you are satisfied. 11 And I will make a distinction for you for food, and I will not destroy the fruit of your land; and your vine in the field will not grow weak, says the Lord Almighty. 12 And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty.

Words Against the Lord

13 You have made your words heavy against me, says the Lord. Yet you said, “How did we speak against you?” 14 You said: The person serving God is useless. And what have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking as people begging before the presence of the Lord Almighty? 15 And now we call foreigners blessed; and all those who act unlawfully are built up; and they have resisted God, and were saved.

16 Those who fear the Lord spoke against these things, each to his neighbor. And the Lord paid attention, and listened and wrote a book of remembrance before him for those who fear the Lord and respect his name. 17 And they will be mine, says the Lord Almighty, on the day when I act to acquire them, and I will choose them as a person chooses his son who serves him. 18 Then you will return, and see the difference between the righteous and the lawless, and between the person who serves God, and the person who does not serve him.

The Coming Day

19 For, look, the day of the Lord is coming, burning like an oven, and it will burn them; and all the foreigners and all those who act lawlessly will be straw. And the coming day will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty, and neither root nor branch will be left of them. 20 But for you who fear my name a sun of righteousness will rise, and healing will be in its wings, and you will go out and leap like young calves released from their tethers. 21 And you will trample the lawless, for they will be ashes under your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty.

Elijah and the Law of Moses

22 And, look, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes, 23 who will restore the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a person to his neighbor, so that I do not come and strike the earth completely.

24 Remember the law of Moses my slave, as I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, with commands and rulings.