1The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of his messenger. Place it now upon your hearts. 2 “I loved you,” says the Lord. But you said, “In what way have you loved us?” “Was not Esau the brother of Jacob?” said the Lord. “And I loved Jacob, 3 but I hated Esau, and I stationed his boundaries for destruction and his inheritance into gifts of desolation.” 4 Wherefore Edom will say, “It has been overthrown, but we will return and rebuild the desolate places.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “They will build it up, but I will overthrow it, and it will be called for them borders of wickedness, and a people against whom the Lord has set himself against until eternity. 5 And your eyes will see, and you will say, ‘The Lord was made great beyond the borders of Israel. 6 “A son honors a father, and a servant his lord; so, if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am Lord, where is my reverence?” says the Lord Almighty. “You are the priests, the ones who despise my name. But you said, ‘In what way did we despise your name? 7 By bringing to my altar polluted bread. But you said, ‘In what way did we pollute it?’ While you said, ‘The table of the Lord is polluted, and you scorned that which was placed on it. 8 So then if you should bring a blind animal for a sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you should bring a lame or unhealthy animal, is it not evil? Bring it now to your ruler to see whether he would receive you, whether he will receive your face,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “And now, propitiate the face of your God and beg him. Through your hands these things have happened. Will I receive your faces from you?” says the Lord Almighty. 10 “Because the doors will be closed among you, so that he will not kindle my altar freely. It is not my desire to be among you,” says the Lord Almighty. “And I will not receive a sacrifice from your hands. 11 Because from the easta and to the west, my name has been honored among the nations. And in every place incense is brought to my name, and pure sacrifices, because great is my name among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “But you have profaned it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is polluted, and his prepared meat has been disdained. 13 And you said, ‘These things are from much toil,’ so I blew them away,” says the Lord Almighty. “And you brought in the spoils of war and the lame and the unwell. So, if you bring this as the sacrifice, should I receive them out of your hands?” says the Lord Almighty.[1]
2“But cursed is he who is able, and a male is present among his flock, and his vow is upon it, but he sacrifices a spoiled animal to the Lord, because I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty. “And my name is famous among the nations. 2 “And now, this is the commandment to you, O priests. 2 If you do not obey, and if you do not set in your heart to give honor to my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “then I will send upon you the curse, and I will bring curses upon your blessing, indeed I will curse it. And I will scatter abroad your blessing; and it will not be among you, because you did not set it in your heart. 3 Look, I am separating your shoulder, and I will scatter cattle innards on your face, cattle innards of feasts, and I will take you into it. 4 And you will know that I sent you this commandment, to be my covenant with the Levites,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave it to him so that in fear he would be feared, and he would keep away from the face of my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found in his lips. Leading in peace he came with me, and many turned from injustice. 7 Because the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and they will seek out a decision from his mouth, because he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty. 8 But you turn aside from the way and make many weak in the law. You break the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “So I have made you despiseda and disowned among all the nations, because you did not observe my ways, but you have received a faceb in the law. 10 “Did not one God create you? Is there not one father of all of you? Why is it that each one deserted his brother to profane the covenant of your fathers? 11 Judah was deserted, and an abomination came to pass in Israel and in Jerusalem, because Judah profaned the sacred things of the Lord, things he loved, and pursued foreign gods. 12 The Lord will utterly destroy the person who does these things until he might even humble himself from the tent of Jacob and from bringing a sacrifice to the Lord Almighty. 13 And these things, which I hate, you do: You cover with tears the altar of the Lord, and with weeping and groaning from troubles. Yet is it worthy to look upon the sacrifice or to take an acceptable gift from your hands? 14 And you said, ‘Because of what?’ Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you deserted, even though she is your partner and the wife of your covenant. 15 And he did not make her good, yet she has the residue of his breath. And you said, ‘What other seed does God desire?’ So, observe in your spirit, and do not desert the wife of your youth. 16 But if, while hating, you dismiss your wife,” says the Lord God of Israel, “you will conceal the wrongdoing of your thoughts,” says the Lord Almighty. “So, observe in your spirit, and certainly do not desert your wife.” 17 You are the ones irritating God with your words. But you said, “In what way have we irritated him?” When you say, “Everyone doing evil is good before the Lord, and with them he himself is pleased,” and “Where is the God of righteousness?” 3
3“Look, I send my messenger, and he will observe the way before my face. And suddenly, the Lord, whom you seek, will come into his own temple. And the messenger of the covenant, whom you want, look, he comes,” says the Lord Almighty. 2 “But who will endure the day of his entrance, or who will stand in his appearance? Because he enters as a fire of a furnace and as a kind of cleansing. 3 He will sit, smelting and cleansing, as if it were silver and as if it were gold; and he will purify the children of Levi and pour them out just like gold and like silver, and they will become those who bring to the Lord a sacrifice in righteousness. 4 And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, just as in the days of eternity and just as the previous years. 5 And I will approach you with justice, and I will become a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulteresses and against the ones who swear oaths in my name, against liars and against those who defraud the wages of workers and who oppress the widow and who maltreat orphans and who pervert justice of the resident alien and who do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty. 6 “Because I am the Lord, your God, and I do not change. 7 “And you, the sons of Jacob, are not far off from the injustices of your fathers. You pervert my statutes and do not observe them. Return to me, and I will turn to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you said, ‘In what way should we return? 8 Does a person deceive God? Because you are deceiving me. But you will say, ‘In what way do we deceive you?’ Because the tithes and the firstfruits are with you. 9 But, turning attention, you turn your attention and deceive me; the year has come to an end. 10 So bring all that which the earth produces into the treasury, and it will be his spoil in his house. Examine then in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “if I will not open for you the waterfalls of heaven, and it will pour out for you my blessing until it is sufficient. 11 And I will divide out food for you. And I will not utterly destroy the fruit of your land, and your vine, the one in the field, will not be weak,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “And all the nations will bless you, because you will be a desired land,” says the Lord Almighty. 13 “You burden me with your words,” says the Lord. “But you said, ‘In what way have we spoken against you? 14 You said, ‘The one who serves God is pointless,’ and ‘What is gained that we observe his commandments and that we come as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty? 15 And now we bless foreigners, and all those doing evil are restored, and they stand against God and are preserved.’” 16 The ones fearing the Lord speak against these things, each one to his neighbor. And the Lord regarded them and listened and wrote a book of memorial before him for the ones fearing the Lord and reverencing his name. 17 “And they will be for me,” says the Lord Almighty, “on the day that I will make them into a possession, and I will choose them the way a person chooses his son, the one serving him. 18 And you will turn, and you will see between the righteous and the wicked, and between the one serving God and the one not serving.