The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel
by Malachi.
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say,
Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the
LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and
his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but
we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD
of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall
call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom
the LORD hath indignation for ever.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say,
The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his
master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a
master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O
priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised
thy name?
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and
ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of
the LORD is contemptible.
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is
it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or
accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will
be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard
your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
Who is there even among you that would shut
the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for
nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither
will I accept an offering at your hand.
For from the rising of the sun even unto the
going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles;
and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a
pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith
the LORD of hosts.
But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The
table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his
meat, is contemptible.
Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is
it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye
brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye
brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the
LORD.
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in
his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a
corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and
my name is dreadful among the heathen.
And now, O ye priests, this commandment is
for you.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay
it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I
will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings:
yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to
heart.
Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread
dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one
shall take you away with it.
And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith
the LORD of hosts.
My covenant was with him of life and peace;
and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was
afraid before my name.
The law of truth was in his mouth, and
iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and
equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
For 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.
But ye are departed out of the way; ye have
caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant
of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
Therefore have I also made you contemptible
and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my
ways, but have been partial in the law.
Have we not all one father? hath not one God
created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his
brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an
abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath
profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married
the daughter of a strange god.
The LORD will cut off the man that doeth
this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob,
and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
And this have ye done again, covering the
altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out,
insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth
it with good will at your hand.
Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath
been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the
wife of thy covenant.
And did not he make one? Yet had he the
residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a
godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that
he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment,
saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that
ye deal not treacherously.
Ye have wearied the LORD with your words.
Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one
that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth
in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he
shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of
hosts.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and
who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fullers' soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as
gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in
righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as
in former years.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and
I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me,
saith the LORD of hosts.
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Even from the days of your fathers ye are
gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto
me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye
said, Wherein shall we return?
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings.
Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have
robbed me, even this whole nation.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith,
saith 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 to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your
sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither
shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith
the LORD of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed: for
ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
Your words have been stout against me, saith
the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against
thee?
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and
what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have
walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
And now we call the proud happy; yea, they
that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even
delivered.
Then they that feared the LORD spake often
one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD,
and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of
hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them,
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return, and discern between
the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him
that serveth him not.
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn
as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall
be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the
LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch.
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun
of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall
do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the
statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to
the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest
I come and smite the earth with a curse.