Malachi

Old Testament · 3 chapters · 55 verses.

Chapter 1

1:1The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi:
1:2“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have You loved us?”
1:3“Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I made his mountains a desolation and gave his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”
1:4Though Edom says, “We have been shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,” thus says the LORD of Hosts: “They may build, but I will tear down. They will be called ‘A territory of wickedness’ and ‘The people against whom the LORD is indignant forever.’”
1:5Your eyes will see it, and you will say, “The LORD is great beyond the border of Israel.”
1:6“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 the fear due Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My Name. Yet you say, “How have we despised Your Name?”
1:7“You offer defiled food upon My altar. Yet you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’
1:8When you offer the blind for sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is that not evil? Present it now to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor?” says the LORD of Hosts.
1:9“And now, entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us. This has come from your own hand. Will He show favor to any of you?” says the LORD of Hosts.
1:10“Oh, that one of you would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on 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.
1:11For 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.
1:12“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled, and its fruit—its food—is contemptible.’
1:13You also say, ‘Behold, what a weariness!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD of Hosts. “You bring what was stolen, and the lame, and the sick, and offer them as an offering. Should I accept it from your hand?” says the LORD.
1:14“Cursed is the deceiver who has a male in his flock and vows it, yet sacrifices to the Lord a blemished animal. For I am a great King,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and My Name is feared among the nations.”

Chapter 2

2:1“And now, this command is for you, O priests:
2:2If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My Name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “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.
2:3Behold, I am rebuking your offspring because of you, and I will spread dung upon your faces—the dung of your festivals—and you will be carried away with it.
2:4Then you will know that I have sent this command to you, so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts.
2:5“My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; and he feared Me and stood in awe before My Name.
2:6True instruction was in his mouth, and no perverseness was found upon his lips. In peace and uprightness he walked with Me, and he turned many away from iniquity.
2:7For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is a messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
2:8But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble through the Instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.
2:9“Therefore I also have made you despised and low before all the people, because you do not keep My ways, but show partiality in the Instruction.”
2:10Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why, then, do we deal treacherously with one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
2:11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned what is holy to the LORD, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
2:12May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this—the one who awakes and the one who answers—even the one who brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.
2:13And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or receives it with favor from your hand.
2:14Yet you say, “Why?” Because the LORD was 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.
2:15Did He not make them one? Yet the remnant of the Spirit was His. And why did He make them one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore guard your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
2:16“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, God of Israel, “and the man who covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Therefore watch over your spirit, and do not deal treacherously.”
2:17You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is pleasing in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them”; or, “Where is the God of judgment?”

Chapter 3

3:1“Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. Then suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to His temple—even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom you desire. Behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.
3:2“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 a launderer’s soap.
3:3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may bring an offering to the LORD in righteousness.
3:4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old and as in former years.
3:5And I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, and those who swear falsely; against those who defraud the hired worker of his wages, the widow, and the fatherless; against those who turn aside the sojourner and do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
3:6“For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, have not been consumed.
3:7From 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. Yet you say, “How shall we return?”
3:8“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me.” But you say, “How have we robbed You?” “In the tithe and the offering.
3:9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me—the whole nation.
3:10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me now in this,” says the LORD of Hosts, “whether I will not open for you the windows of the heavens and pour out upon you a blessing until there is no more need.
3:11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor will the vine in your field cast its fruit before its time,” says the LORD of Hosts.
3:12“And all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Hosts.
3:13“Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “What have we spoken against You?”
3:14You have said, “It is vain to serve God. What gain is there in keeping His charge or in walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
3:15And now we call the arrogant blessed. Indeed, those who do wickedness are built up; they have even tested God and escaped.”
3:16Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another; and the LORD gave attention and heard. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the LORD and esteemed His Name.
3:17“And they will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I make them My treasured possession. And I will spare them, as a man spares his son who serves him.
3:18Then you will again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.”
3:19“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and all who do wickedness will be stubble. The coming day will burn them up,” says the LORD of Hosts, “leaving them neither root nor branch.
3:20But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings; and you will go forth and bound like calves released from the stall.
3:21And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes beneath the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD of Hosts.
3:22“Remember the Instruction of Moses My servant, which I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel—statutes and judgments.
3:23Behold, I am sending Elijah the prophet to you before the coming of the great and terrible Day of the LORD.
3:24And he will turn the heart of fathers toward sons, and the heart of sons toward their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with complete destruction.”