Malachi

Malachi

The oracle of the word of YHWH to Israel by Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says YHWH.

But you say, “How have You loved us?”

“Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares YHWH.

“Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.

I have laid waste his hill country

and left his inheritance to jackals of the desert.”

If Edom says, “We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins,”

YHWH of Hosts says,

“They may build, but I will tear down,

and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’

and ‘the people with whom YHWH is angry forever.’”

Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say,

“Great is YHWH beyond the borders of Israel!”

“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 YHWH of Hosts to you, O priests,

who despise My name.

But you say, “How have we despised Your name?”

By offering polluted food on My altar.

But you say, “How have we polluted You?”

By saying that YHWH’s table may be despised.

When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?

Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?

says YHWH of Hosts.

Now entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to us.

With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you?

says YHWH of Hosts.

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 YHWH of Hosts,

and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

For from the rising of the sun to its setting,

My name will be great among the nations,

and in every place incense will be offered to My name,

and a pure offering.

For My name will be great among the nations,

says YHWH of Hosts.

But you profane it

when you say that YHWH’s table is polluted,

and its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised.

You say, “What a weariness this is,”

and you snort at it, says YHWH of Hosts.

You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick,

and this you bring as your offering!

Shall I accept that from your hand? says YHWH.

Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock,

and vows it, yet sacrifices to YHWH what is blemished.

For I am a great King, says YHWH of Hosts,

and My name will be feared among the nations.

———

“And now, O priests, this command is for you.

If you will not listen,

if you will not take it to heart to give honor to My name,

then I will send the curse upon you

and curse your blessings.

Indeed, I have already cursed them,

because you do not lay it to heart.

Behold, I will rebuke your offspring,

and spread dung on your faces,

the dung of your offerings,

and you shall be taken away with it.”

“My covenant with Levi was one of life and peace,

and I gave them to him.

It was a covenant of reverence,

and he feared Me; he stood in awe of My name.

True instruction was in his mouth,

and no wrong was found on his lips.

He walked with Me in peace and uprightness,

and he turned many from iniquity.

But you have turned aside from the way.

You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.

You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says YHWH of Hosts.

“So I make you despised and abased before all the people,

inasmuch as you do not keep My ways

but show partiality in your teaching.”

Have we not all one Father?

Has not one God created us?

Why then are we faithless to one another,

profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

Judah has been faithless,

and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.

For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of YHWH,

which He loves,

and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

May YHWH cut off from the tents of Jacob

any descendant of the man who does this,

who brings an offering to YHWH of Hosts.

And this second thing you do:

You cover YHWH’s altar with tears,

with weeping and groaning

because He no longer regards the offering

or accepts it with favor from your hand.

But you say, “Why?”

Because YHWH was witness

between you and the wife of your youth,

to whom you have been faithless,

though she is your companion and your covenant wife.

Did He not make them one,

with a portion of the Spirit in their union?

And what was the one God seeking?

Godly offspring.

So guard yourselves in your spirit,

and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.

“For I hate divorce,” says YHWH,

“and the covering of violence with your garment,”

says YHWH of Hosts.

So guard yourselves in your spirit,

and do not be faithless.

———

“You have wearied YHWH with your words.”

But you say, “How have we wearied Him?”

By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of YHWH,

and He delights in them,”

or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

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 in whom you delight,

behold, He is coming, says YHWH of Hosts.

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.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,

and He will purify the sons of Levi

and refine them like gold and silver,

and they will bring offerings in righteousness to YHWH.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem

will be pleasing to YHWH

as in the days of old and as in former years.

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness

against the sorcerers,

against the adulterers,

against those who swear falsely,

against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages,

the widow and the fatherless,

against those who thrust aside the sojourner,

and do not fear Me,” says YHWH of Hosts.

“For I YHWH do not change;

therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

From 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 YHWH of Hosts.

But you say, “How shall we return?”

Will a man rob God?

Yet you are robbing Me.

But you say, “How have we robbed You?”

In your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with a curse,

for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,

that there may be food in My house.

And thereby put Me to the test, says YHWH of Hosts,

if I will not open the windows of heaven for you

and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

I will rebuke the devourer for you,

so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil,

and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear,

says YHWH of Hosts.

Then all nations will call you blessed,

for you will be a land of delight,

says YHWH of Hosts.

“Your words have been harsh against Me,” says YHWH.

But you say, “What have we spoken against You?”

You have said, “It is vain to serve God.

What is the profit of our keeping His charge

or of walking as mourners before YHWH of Hosts?

And now we call the arrogant blessed.

Evildoers not only prosper

but they test God and escape.”

Then those who feared YHWH

spoke with one another.

YHWH paid attention and heard them,

and a book of remembrance was written before Him

of those who feared YHWH

and esteemed His name.

“They shall be Mine,” says YHWH of Hosts,

“in the day when I make up My treasured possession,

and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Then once more you shall see the distinction

between the righteous and the wicked,

between one who serves God

and one who does not serve Him.”

———

“For behold, the day is coming,

burning like an oven,

when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze,”

says YHWH of Hosts,

“so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

But for you who fear My name,

the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

And you shall tread down the wicked,

for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet,

on the day when I act, says YHWH of Hosts.

“Remember the Torah of My servant Moses,

the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb

for all Israel.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet

before the great and awesome day of YHWH comes.

And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children

and the hearts of the children to their fathers,

lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction.”