1 Prophecy of the word of the Lord against Israel, through Malachi.
2 I have loved you, says the Lord; and you said: How did you love us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says Jehovah. And I loved Jacob,
3 and I hated Esau, and I made his mountains a desolation, and abandoned his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.
4 When Edom says, We have become poor, but we will rebuild what was ruined; Thus says the Lord of hosts: They will build, and I will destroy; and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and a people against whom the Lord is indignant forever.
5 And your eyes will see it, and you will say, Let the Lord be magnified beyond the limits of Israel.
6 A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master. If, then, I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a lord, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. And you say: How have we despised your name?
7 In that you offer unclean bread on my altar. And you said: How have we dishonored you? In that you think that the table of Jehovah is contemptible.
8 And when you offer the blind animal for sacrifice, is it not evil? Likewise when you offer the lame or the sick, is it not bad? Present him, then, to your prince; Will he be pleased with you, or will you be accepted by him? says the Lord of hosts.
9 Now therefore pray for God’s favor, that he may have mercy on us. But how can you please him if you do these things? says the Lord of hosts.
10 Who among you also shuts the doors or lights my altar for nothing? I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering at your hand.
11 For from where the sun rises to where it sets, my name is great among the nations; and in every place incense and a clean offering are offered to my name, for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
12 And you have profaned it when you say, The Lord’s table is unclean, and when you say that his food is contemptible.
13 You have also said: Oh, what a nuisance this is! and you despise me, says the Lord of hosts; and you brought what was stolen, or lame, or sick, and you presented an offering. Will I accept that from your hand? says Jehovah.
14 Cursed is the one who deceives, who has males in his flock, promises, and sacrifices to the Lord what is damaged. For I am the Great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations.
1 Now therefore, O priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you do not listen, and if you do not decide from the heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings; and I have even cursed them, because you have not decided from the heart.
3 Behold, I will destroy your fields, and I will throw dung in your faces, the dung of your slaughtered animals, and you will be thrown out with it.
4 And you will know that I sent you this commandment, to be my covenant with Levi, says the Lord of hosts.
5 My covenant with him was life and peace, which I gave him so that he would fear me; and he was afraid of me, and he was humbled before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips; He walked with me in peace and righteousness, and turned many away from iniquity.
7 For the lips of the priest must keep wisdom, and from his mouth the people will seek the law; for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble in the law; You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts.
9 Therefore, I also have made you vile and low before all the people, just as you have not kept my ways, and are respecters of persons in the law.
10 Don’t we all have the same father? Has not the same God created us? Why then do we behave disloyally toward one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has transgressed, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loved, and married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, the one who watches and the one who answers, and the one who offers an offering to the LORD of hosts.
13 And this again you will cover the altar of the Lord with tears, crying, and clamor; so I will no longer look at the offering, to accept it with pleasure from your hand.
14 But you will say: Why? For the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have been disloyal, since she was your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
15 Did he not become one, having an abundance of spirit in him? And why one? Because he was looking for descendants for God. Therefore, be careful in your spirit, and do not be disloyal to the wife of your youth.
16 For the Lord God of Israel has said that he hates disownment, and clothed him who covers iniquity with it, says the Lord of hosts. Take heed therefore in your spirit, and be not disloyal.
17 You have made Jehovah weary with your words. And you say: How have we tired him? In which you say: Anyone who does evil pleases the Lord, and he delights in such; or if not, where is the God of justice?
1 Behold, I send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts.
2 And who can endure the time of his coming? or who can stand when he appears? For he is like a purifying fire, and like fullers’ soap.
3 And he will sit to refine and clean the silver; For he will purify the sons of Levi, refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring an offering to the Lord in righteousness.
4 And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in the years of old.
5 And I will come to you for judgment; and I will soon be a witness against sorcerers and adulterers, against those who swear lies, and against those who defraud the hired worker, the widow, and the orphan of their wages, and against those who do injustice to a foreigner, not fearing me, says the Lord of The armies.
6 For I, the Lord, do not change; Therefore, sons of Jacob, you have not been consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers you have departed from my laws, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you said: To what shall we turn?
8 Will man steal from God? Well, you have stolen from me. And you said: Wherein have we robbed you? In your tithes and offerings.
9 Cursed are you with a curse, because you, the entire nation, have stolen from me.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and there may be food in my house; and test me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour out a blessing upon you until it overflows.
11 I will also rebuke the devourer for your sake, and he will not destroy your fruit of the ground, nor will your vine in the field be barren, says the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations will call you blessed; for you will be a desirable land, says the Lord of hosts.
13 Your words against me have been violent, says the Lord. And you said: What have we spoken against you?
14 You have said: It is vain to serve God. What profit is it if we keep his law, and walk in affliction before the Lord of hosts?
15 Therefore we now say: Blessed are the proud, and those who do wickedness not only prosper, but have tempted God and escaped.
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke each one to his companion; and the LORD heard and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the LORD, and for those who think about his name.
17 And they will be a special treasure to me, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I act; and I will forgive them, as a man forgives his son who serves him.
18 Then you will turn and discern the difference between the righteous and the evil, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.
1 For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud and all who do evil will be stubble; That day that is coming will burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, and he will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But to you who fear my name, the Sun of righteousness will rise, and in its wings it will bring salvation; and you will go out and leap like calves out of the herd.
3 You will trample down the wicked, and they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
4 Remember the law of Moses my servant, to whom I entrusted in Horeb ordinances and laws for all Israel.
5 Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children, and the hearts of the children toward their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.
