Ma-la-chi 2

A warning to the priests

¹And now, you priests, this command is for you. ²If you will not listen, and if you will not resolve to give glory to my name, says the LORD of Armies, \q I will send the curse on you \q and turn your blessings into curses. \q In fact, I have already cursed them, \q because you have not taken this to heart. ³I am about to rebuke your descendants, \q and I will smear dung on your faces, \q the dung of your festival sacrifices, \q and you will be carried off with it.^{a 4}Then you will know that I have sent you this command \q so that my covenant with Levi may stand, \q says the LORD of Armies. ⁵My covenant with him was one of life and peace, \q and I gave them to him so that he would revere me, and he did revere me \q and stood in awe of my name. ⁶True instruction was in his mouth, \q and nothing wrong was found on his lips. \q In peace and uprightness he walked with me, \q and he turned many back from sin. ⁷For a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge, \q and people should look to him for instruction, \q because he is the messenger of the LORD of Armies. ⁸But you have turned from the way \q and caused many to stumble by your instruction. \q You have ruined the covenant of Levi, \q says the LORD of Armies. ⁹So I in turn have made you contemptible and lowly in the eyes of all the people, \q since you have not kept to my ways \q and you show favoritism in your instruction.

Unfaithful to one another

¹⁰Do we not all have one father? \q Was it not one God who created us? \q So why are we unfaithful to one another, \q profaning the covenant of our ancestors? ¹¹Judah has been unfaithful, \q and a detestable practice has been carried out in Israel and in Jerusalem. \q Judah has profaned what is holy to the LORD, what he loves, \q by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.^{b 12}May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob \q every man who does this, whoever he may be, \q even if he brings an offering \q to the LORD of Armies.^c

The wife of your youth

¹³And here is another thing you do: \q you flood the LORD’s altar with tears, \q weeping and groaning, \q because he no longer looks on your offerings \q or accepts them gladly from your hands. ¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” \q Because the LORD was a witness between you and the wife you married in your youth. You have broken faith with her, \q though she is your partner and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵Did he not make them one, with a portion of spirit in their union? \q And why one? \q Because he was seeking godly offspring. \q So guard yourselves in your spirit, \q and let no one be unfaithful to the wife of his youth.^{d 16}For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, \q and I hate it when a man covers his garment with violence, \q says the LORD of Armies. \q So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.^e

Where is the God of justice?

¹⁷You have wearied the LORD with your words. \q Yet you ask, “In what way have we wearied him?” \q When you say, “All who do evil are good in the LORD’s sight, and he is pleased with them,” \q or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”