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Malachi 1:1-5
1 The oracle of the Word of the Lord to Israel delivered by Malachi. 2 The Lord says ‘I have loved you, but you ask, “In what way have you loved us?” The Lord declares ‘Is Esau not a brother to Jacob? Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but I have hated Esau; I have given over his mountains to wasteland and his inheritance to desert jackals.’ 4 Though Edom says, ‘we are shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,’ this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘They may build, but as for me, I will demolish. They are spoken of as the Land of Wickedness, a people with whom the Lord is incensed forever! 5 You will see this with your own eyes and say, “Great is the Lord, even beyond the borders of Israel!”’
Malachi 1:6-14
6 ‘A son honours his father and a servant his master. Now, if I am a father, where is my honour? If I am a Lord, where is my respect? The Lord of Hosts says this to you, you priests who despise my name!’
‘But you say, “How have we despised Your name?” 7 In offering defiled food upon my altar! Then you ask, “How have we defiled You?” In your declaring that the Lord’s table is being defiled!’
8 Is it not wrong for you to offer a blind animal for sacrifice? Is it not wrong to offer what is lame or sick? Present this to your governor! Will He be pleased with you or accept you? 9 So plead for the favour of God on us! Will He be accept us when this is happening by your hand?’ says the Lord of Hosts.
10 ‘Who from amongst you would shut the Temple doors so that you would not light up my altars in vain? I take no pleasure in you,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘I will not accept an offering from your hands! 11 From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the nations. In every place incense and a pure gift will be offered to my name, for my name is great among the nations,’ says the Lord of Hosts.
12 ‘But you are profaning it when you declare that the Lord’s table is defiled and what comes from it (its food) is defiled!’ 13 But you say, ‘How troublesome this is,' and you sneer at it,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘You bring what has been stolen or lame or sick, and you bring this as your offering! Shall I accept this from your hand?’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Cursed is the cheat who has a male in his flock, and promises to offer it, and yet sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord; for I am a great King,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and my name is to be feared among the nations.’
Malachi 2:1-9
1 And now, this instruction is for you O priests. 2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; moreover, I have already cursed them and you do not take it to heart. 3 Look, I will rebuke your descendants! I have spread offal on your faces, the offal of your festival sacrifices, and you will be removed with it!
4 You will then know that I have sent this instruction to you so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant was with him for life and peace; I gave it to him as something to fear, and he revered me and stood in awe of it before my name. 6 Truthful instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in contentment and uprightness, and he turned many away from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should keep watch over knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have turned aside from the way; through your teaching you have made many stumble; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. 9 Therefore I have made you contemptible and have humiliated you in front of all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.
Malachi 2:10-16
10 Do we not all have one father? Were we not created by one God? Why then does a man break faith with his brother, profaning the covenant of our forefathers? 11 Judah has broken faith, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has defiled the holiness of the Lord, and he has loved and married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this (travellers or residents), who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.
13 And you do this as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because He no longer pays attention to the offering or willingly accepts it from your hand! 14 You ask, ‘Why?’ Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, and you have broken faith with her; though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did He not make them one, and give them a portion of the Spirit? And what oneness does He desire? Godly offspring. So guard your spirits, and do not let anyone break faith with the wife of his youth. 16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that He hates divorce, and the hiding of the violence used to send a woman away, says the Lord of hosts. So guard your spirits, and do not break faith.
Malachi 2:17-3:5
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ By saying, ‘All who do what is wrong are acceptable in the Lord’s sight, and He delights in them.’ Or else, ‘Where is the God of justice?’
3:1 Look! I am sending my messenger to clear the way before me, and suddenly, the Lord whom you seek will come into His Temple. Look! The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; 3 he will reside as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in the days of old and as in years gone by.
5 Then I will approach you in judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners, widows and orphans, against those who turn aside strangers, yet do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:6-12
6 For I the Lord do not change; and you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. 7 Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. But you say, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 Will anyone cheat God? Yet you are cheating me! But you say, ‘How are we cheating you?’ In your tithes and offerings! 9 You are accursed! It is me you are cheating, the whole of this nation! 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. Put me to the test by doing this, says the Lord of Hosts, and see if I will not open up for you the windows of heaven and pour down blessings upon you until there is nothing left! 11 For you, I will stop pests destroying the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field will not be fruitless, says the Lord of Hosts. 12 Then all nations will consider you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:13-18
13 ‘You have spoken strong words against me’, says the Lord. But you say, ‘What have we said to each other against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It means nothing to serve God. What do we gain if we keep to His requirements, or if we walk about mournfully before the Lord of hosts? 15 So we now call the arrogant ‘blessed’! Those who do evil not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape.’
16 Then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written in His presence listing those who revered the Lord and valued His name. 17 ‘They will be mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as a man spares a son who serves him. 18 Then you will once again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, and between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.’
Malachi 4:1-6
1 ‘For look! The day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all who do evil will be stubble; the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘it will leave them neither root nor branch.’ 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness will arise and healing will be on its wings. You will be released, leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you will crush the wicked, for on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts, they will become like ashes under the soles of your feet.
4 Remember the Law of my servant Moses, the statutes and judgements that I gave him at Horeb to give to all Israel.
5 Look, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 6 He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, so that I do not come and strike the land with a curse of destruction.
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