God’s Great Love for Israel
1The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
2aI have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet bI loved Jacob,
3And I hated Esau, and claid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
4Whereas 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 dthrow down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
5And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, eThe LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
The Priests Dishonour the Lord
6A son fhonoureth his father, and a servant his master: gif 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. hAnd ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
7Ye offer ipolluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, jThe table of the LORD is contemptible.
8And kif 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 laccept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
9And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: mthis hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
10Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? nneither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, oneither will I accept an offering at your hand.
11For pfrom the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great qamong the Gentiles; rand in every place sincense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: tfor my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
12But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, uThe table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
13Ye said also, Behold, what a vweariness 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: wshould I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
14But cursed be xthe deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a ycorrupt thing: for zI am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
The Punishment of the Priests
1And now, O ye apriests, this commandment is for you.
2bIf 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 calready, because ye do not lay it to heart.
3Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread ddung up on your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall etake you away with it.
4And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
5fMy covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him gfor the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6hThe 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 iturn many away from iniquity.
7jFor the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: kfor he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
The Corruption of the Priests
8But ye are departed out of the way; ye lhave caused many to stumble at the law; mye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
9Therefore nhave I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been opartial in the law.
Judah’s Treacherous Dealings
10pHave we not all one father? qhath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath rprofaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, sand him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13And 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.
14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and tthe wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: uyet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
15And vdid not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek wa godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16For xthe 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.
17yYe have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, zEvery one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
The Messenger of the Covenant
1Behold, aI will send my messenger, and he shall bprepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, ceven the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, dhe shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
2But who may abide ethe day of his coming? and fwho shall stand when he appeareth? for ghe is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3And hhe 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 ioffer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4Then jshall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, kand against false swearers, and against those that loppress the hireling in his wages, the mwidow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
6For I am the LORD, nI change not; otherefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Robbing God of His Offerings
7Even from the days of pyour fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. qReturn unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. rBut ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? sIn tithes and offerings.
9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10tBring ye all the tithes into the ustorehouse, 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 vwindows of heaven, and wpour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11And I will rebuke xthe 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.
12And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be ya delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
13zYour words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14aYe 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?
15And now bwe call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that ctempt God are even delivered.
16Then they dthat feared the LORD espake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and fa book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17And gthey shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my hjewels; and iI will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18jThen shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
The Destruction of the Wicked
1For, behold, athe day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all bthe proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be cstubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall dleave them neither root nor branch.
2But unto you that efear my name shall the fSun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3gAnd 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 the Law of Moses
4Remember ye the hlaw of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with ithe statutes and judgments.
5Behold, I will send you jElijah the prophet kbefore the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and lsmite the earth with ma curse.