1:1 The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.
1:2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah; but ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith Jehovah, and I loved Jacob,
1:3 and I hated Esau; and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.
1:4 If Edom say, We are broken down, but we will build again the ruined places, -- thus saith Jehovah of hosts: They shall build, but I will throw down; and [men] shall call them the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever.
1:5 And your eyes shall see [it], and ye shall say, Jehovah is magnified beyond the border of Israel.
1:6 A son honoureth [his] father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
1:7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible.
1:8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Present it now unto thy governor: will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith Jehovah of hosts.
1:9 And now, I pray you, beseech щGod that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been of your hand: will he accept any of your persons? saith Jehovah of hosts.
1:10 Who is there among you that would even shut the doors? and ye would not kindle [fire] on mine altar for nothing. I have no delight in you, saith Jehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an oblation at your hand.
1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation: for my name shall be great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts.
1:12 But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, his food, is contemptible.
1:13 And ye say, Behold, what a weariness! And ye have puffed at it, saith Jehovah of hosts, and ye bring [that which was] torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the oblation: should I accept this of your hand? saith Jehovah.
1:14 Yea, cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing; for I am a great King, saith Jehovah of hosts, and my name is terrible among the nations.
2:1 And now, ye priests, this commandment is for you.
2:2 If ye do not hear, and if ye do not lay [it] to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will even send the curse among you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have already cursed them, because ye do not lay [it] to heart.
2:3 Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your feasts; and they shall take you away with it.
2:4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts.
2:5 My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and trembled before my name.
2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.
2:7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and at his mouth they seek the law; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.
2:8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts.
2:9 And I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because ye have not kept my ways, but have respect of persons in [administering] the law.
2:10 Have we not all one father? Hath not one щGod created us? Why do we deal unfaithfully every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
2:11 Judah hath dealt unfaithfully, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the sanctuary of Jehovah which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange щgod.
2:12 Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man that doeth this, him that calleth and him that answereth; and him that offereth an oblation unto Jehovah of hosts.
2:13 And further ye do this: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the oblation any more, nor receiveth [it] with satisfaction at your hand.
2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt unfaithfully: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
2:15 And did not one make [them]? and the remnant of the Spirit was his. And wherefore the one? He sought a seed of God. Take heed then to your spirit, and let none deal unfaithfully against the wife of his youth,
2:16 (for I hate putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel;) and he covereth with violence his garment, saith Jehovah of hosts: take heed then to your spirit, that ye deal not unfaithfully.
2:17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, and ye say, Wherein have we wearied [him]? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
3:1 Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the Angel of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts.
3:2 But who shall endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he will be like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' lye.
3:3 And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness.
3:4 Then shall the oblation of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in [his] wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right], and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
3:6 For I Jehovah change not, and ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
3:7 Since the days of your fathers have ye departed from my statutes, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?
3:8 Will a man rob God? But ye rob me. And ye say, Wherein do we rob thee? [In] tithes and heave-offerings.
3:9 Ye are cursed with a curse; and me ye rob, [even] this whole nation.
3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I open not to you the windows of the heavens, and pour you out a blessing, till there be no place for it.
3:11 And I 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 the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts.
3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.
3:13 Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah; but ye say, What have we been speaking against thee?
3:14 Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge, and that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?
3:15 And now we hold the proud for happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and they escape.
3:16 Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed [it], and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.
3:17 And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, saith Jehovah of hosts, in the day that I prepare; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
3:18 And ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
4:1 For behold, the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
4:2 And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and leap like fatted calves.
4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I prepare, saith Jehovah of hosts.
4:4 Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and ordinances.
4:5 Behold, I send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah.
4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.