Malachi
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Chapter 1
^1An oracle: the word of Yahweh to Israel by Malachi.
^2"I have loved you," says Yahweh.
Yet you say, "How have you loved us?"
"Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" says Yahweh, "Yet I loved Jacob;
^3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his
heritage to the jackals of the wilderness."
^4Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build
the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Armies, "They shall build, but I
will throw down; and men will call them The Wicked Land,' even the
people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."
^5Your eyes will see, and you will say, "Yahweh is great"even beyond
the border of Israel!"
^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 Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You
say, How have we despised your name?'
^7You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, How have we polluted
you?' In that you say, Yahweh's table contemptible.'
^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 Yahweh of Armies.
^9"Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us.
With this, will he accept any of you?" says Yahweh of Armies.
^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 Yahweh of Armies, "neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
^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 Yahweh of Armies.
^12"But you profane it, in that you say, Yahweh's table is polluted,
and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.'
^13You say also, Behold, what a weariness it is!' and you have sniffed
at it," says Yahweh of Armies; "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 Yahweh.
^14"But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows,
and sacrifices to the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King,"
says Yahweh of Armies, "and my name is awesome among the nations."
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Chapter 2
^1"Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
^2If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give
glory to my name," says Yahweh of Armies, "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.
^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.
^4You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my
covenant may be with Levi," says Yahweh of Armies.
^5"My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him
who he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and
stood in awe of my name.
^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.
^7For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.
^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
Yahweh of Armies.
^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.
^10Don't we all have one father? Hasn't one God created us? Why do we
deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the
covenant of our fathers?
^11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh
which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
^12Yahweh 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 Yahweh of Armies.
^13This again you do: you cover the altar of Yahweh 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.
^14Yet you say, Why?' Because Yahweh 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.
^15Did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why
one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and
let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
^16For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who
covers his garment with violence!' says Yahweh of Armies. "Therefore
take heed to your spirit, that you don't deal treacherously.
^17You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, How have we
wearied him?' In that you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the
sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them;' or Where is the God of
justice?'
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Chapter 3
^1"Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me;
and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the
messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!" says
Yahweh of Armies.
^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;
^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 Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
^4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh,
as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.
^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 Yahweh of Armies.
^6"For I, Yahweh, don't change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not
consumed.
^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 Yahweh of Armies. "But you say, How shall we return?'
^8Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, How have we robbed
you?' In tithes and offerings.
^9You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole
nation.
^10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in
my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh of Armies, "if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough for.
^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 Yahweh of Armies.
^12"All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful
land," says Yahweh of Armies.
^13"Your words have been stout against me," says Yahweh. "Yet you say,
What have we spoken against you?'
^14You have said, It is vain to serve God;' and What profit is it that
we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before
Yahweh of Armies?
^15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are
built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.'
^16Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh
listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for
those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.
^17They shall be mine," says Yahweh of Armies, "my own possession in
the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son
who serves him.
^18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.
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Chapter 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 Yahweh of Armies, "that it shall leave
them neither root nor branch.
^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.
^3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the
soles of your feet in the day that I make," says Yahweh of Armies.
^4"Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in
Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
^5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and
terrible day of Yahweh comes.
^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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