Malachi 1

1. The burden of the Word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

2. “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you say, ‘In what way do You love us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD. “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,”— thus says the LORD of hosts, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall be called the border of wickedness, and the people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.

5. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The LORD 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 the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. And you say, ‘In what way do we despise Your name?’

7. You offer defiled bread upon My altar. And you say, ‘In what way do we defile You?’ In your saying, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’

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? Offer it now to your governor. Will he be pleased with you, or accept your person?” says the LORD of hosts.

9. “And now entreat the favor of God, that He will be gracious unto you. This has been by your own hand—and now will He show regard for you?” says the LORD of hosts.

10. “Who is there among you who will even shut the temple doors or kindle a fire on My altar without being paid? I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of hosts. “I will not accept an offering from your hand,

11. For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering, for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.

12. “But you are profaning it when you say, ‘The table of the LORD, it is polluted; and its fruit, His food, is contemptible.’

13. You also said, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have snuffed at it in contempt,” says the LORD of hosts. “And you bring that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick, and thus you brought an offering. Should I accept it from your hand?” says the LORD.

14. “But cursed be a deceiver who has in his flock an acceptable male—yet he vows and sacrifices to the LORD a blemished one, for I am a great King,” says the LORD of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.”