1. The burden of the Word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.
2. I have loved you, says Jehovah. But you say, In what have You loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says Jehovah; yet I loved Jacob,
3. and I hated Esau and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness.
4. If Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places. So says Jehovah of Hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them the region of wickedness, and the people with whom Jehovah is indignant forever.
5. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, Jehovah will be magnified beyond the border of Israel.
6. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says Jehovah of Hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. And you say, In what way have we despised Your name?
7. You offer defiled bread upon My altar; and you say, In what way have we defiled You? In your saying, The table of Jehovah, it is a thing to be despised.
8. And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you, or lift up your face, says Jehovah of Hosts?
9. And now entreat the face of God, that He favor us. This has been by your hands, will He lift up your faces, says Jehovah of Hosts?
10. Who is even among you who will shut the doors, and you not kindle fire on My altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says Jehovah of Hosts. I will not be pleased with an offering from you.
11. For from the rising of the sun even to its going in, My name shall be great among the nations; and everywhere incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure food offering. For My name shall be great among the nations, says Jehovah of Hosts.
12. But you are profaning it when you say, The table of Jehovah, it is polluted; and its fruit, His food, is to be despised.
13. You also said, Behold, what a weariness it is! And you have puffed at it, says Jehovah of Hosts. And you bring plunder, and the lame, and the sick, and you bring the food offering. Should I accept it from your hand, says Jehovah?
14. But cursed be a deceiver; and there is in his flock a male, yet he vows it, but sacrifices to Jehovah a blemished one. For I am a great king, says Jehovah of Hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.