Malachi
1,1An oracle; the word of the L-rd to Israel by Malachi.
1,2 I have loved you,
says the L-rd.
Yet you say, How have you loved us?
Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother? says the L-rd, Yet I loved
Jacob; 1,3but Esau I hated,
and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals
of the wilderness.
1,4Whereas Edom says, We are
beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus says
the L-rd of Hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will
call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom the L-rd shows
wrath forever.
1,5Your eyes will see, and
you will say, the L-rd is great—even beyond the border of Israel!
1,6 A son honors his
father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my
honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says the L-rd of
Hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, 'How have we
despised your name?' 1,7You
offer polluted bread on My altar, and you say, 'How have we polluted you?'
and then you say, 'The L-rd's table is contemptible.'
1,8When you offer the blind for
sacrifice, isn't that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick,
isn't that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased
with you? Or will he accept your person? says the L-rd of Hosts.
1,9 Now, please entreat
the favor of G-d, that he may be gracious to us. With
this, will he accept any of you? says the L-rd of Hosts.
1,10 Oh that there were
one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on
my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the L-rd of Hosts,
neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
1,11For from the rising of the sun
even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations,
and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure
offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the L-rd of
Hosts. 1,12 But you
profane it, and you say, 'The L-rd's table is polluted, and its
fruit, even its food, is contemptible.'
1,13You also say, 'Behold, what a
weariness it is!' and you have sniffed at it, says the L-rd of Hosts;
and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and
the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your
hand? says the L-rd.
1,14 But the deceiver is
cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the L-rd a blemished thing; for I am a great King, says
the L-rd of Hosts, and my name is awesome among the nations.
2,1 Now, you priests,
this commandment is for you.
2,2If you will not listen, and if you
will not lay it to heart, to give glory to My name, says the L-rd of
Hosts, then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your
blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it
to heart. 2,3Behold, I will
rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of
your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.
2,4You will know that I have sent
this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi, says the L-rd
of Hosts. 2,5 My covenant
was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be
reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my
name. 2,6The law of truth was
in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked
with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.
2,7For the priest's lips
should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he
is the messenger of the L-rd of Hosts.
2,8But you have turned aside out of
the way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted
the covenant of Levi, says the L-rd of Hosts.
2,9 Therefore I have also made you
contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have
not kept My ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.
2,10Don't we all have one father?
Hasn't one G-d created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man
against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
2,11Judah has dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has
profaned the holiness of the L-rd which he loves, and has married the
daughter of a foreign god.
2,12The L-rd will cut off, to the man
who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of
Jacob, and him who offers an offering to the L-rd of Hosts.
2,13This again you do; you cover the
altar of the L-rd with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he
doesn't regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will
at your hand. 2,14Yet you
say, 'Why?' Because the L-rd has been 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.
2,15The One made you, and the remaining breath is His? The One seeks godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth.
2,16For I hate divorce, says
the L-rd, G-d of Israel, and him who covers his garment with
violence! says the L-rd of Hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
that you don't deal treacherously.
2,17You have wearied the L-rd with your
words, and you say, 'How have we wearied Him?' And you say,
'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the L-rd, and he delights
in them;' or 'So where is the G-d of justice?'
3,1 Behold, I send My
messenger, and he will prepare the way; and the L-rd, whom you
seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant,
whom you desire, behold, he comes! says the L-rd of Hosts.
3,2 But who can endure the day of
his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a
refiner's fire, and like launderer's soap;
3,3and he will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them
as gold and silver; and they shall offer to the L-rd offerings in
righteousness. 3,4Then the
offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the L-rd, as in the days
of old, and as in ancient years.
3,5I will come near to you to
judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against
the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress
the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive
the foreigner of justice, and don't fear me, says the L-rd of Hosts.
3,6 For I, the L-rd, don't
change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
3,7From the days of your fathers you
have turned aside from My ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to
Me, and I will return to you, says the L-rd of Hosts. But you say,
'How shall we return?'
3,8Will a man rob G-d? Yet you rob
Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.
3,9You are cursed with the
curse; for you rob Me, even this whole nation.
3,10Bring the whole tithe into the
storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in
this, says the L-rd 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
for. 3,11I will rebuke the
devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your
ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the
field, says the L-rd of Hosts.
3,12 All nations shall call you
blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the L-rd of Hosts.
3,13 Your words have
been stout against me, says the L-rd. Yet you say, 'What have we
spoken against you?'
3,14You have said, 'It is vain to
serve G-d;' and 'What profit is it that we have followed His
instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before the L-rd of Hosts?
3,15Now we call the proud
happy; those who work wickedness are built up; they tempt G-d,
and escape.' 3,16Then those
who feared the L-rd spoke one with another; and the L-rd listened, and heard,
and a book of memory was written before Him, for those who feared the L-rd,
and who honored His name.
3,17They shall be mine, says
the L-rd of Hosts, My own possession in the day that I make, and I will
spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
3,18Then you shall return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves G-d and him
who doesn't serve Him.
4,1 For, behold, the day
comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work
wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,
says the L-rd of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch. 4,2But to you who
fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its
wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
4,3You shall tread down the wicked;
for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I
make, says the L-rd of Hosts.
4,4 Remember the law of
Moses My servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even
statutes and ordinances.
4,5Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and terrible day of the L-rd comes.
4,6He will turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
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