
Malachi

   {1:1} The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi. {1:2}
I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved
us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob;
{1:3} but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave]
his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. {1:4} Whereas Edom
saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste
places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw
down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people
against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever. {1:5} And your eyes
shall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border of
Israel. {1:6} A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if
then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is
my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my
name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? {1:7} Ye offer
polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted
thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. {1:8} And
when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye offer
the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy governor;
will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith
Jehovah of hosts. {1:9} And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God,
that he may be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he
accept any of your persons? saith Jehovah of hosts. {1:10} Oh that
there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not
kindle [fire on] mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith
Jehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
{1:11} For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the
same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place
incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my
name [shall be] great among the Gentiles, saith Jehovah of hosts.
{1:12} But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of Jehovah is
polluted, and the fruit thereof, even its food, is contemptible. {1:13}
Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it,
saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by
violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering:
should I accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah. {1:14} But cursed be
the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth
unto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King, saith Jehovah
of hosts, and my name is terrible among the Gentiles.



   {2:1} And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. {2:2} If
ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory
unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse upon
you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already,
because ye do not lay it to heart. {2:3} Behold, I will rebuke your
seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your
feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it. {2:4} And ye shall know
that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be
with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. {2:5} My covenant was with him of
life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he
feared me, and stood in awe of my name. {2:6} The 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.
{2:7} For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek
the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.
{2:8} But ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to
stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith
Jehovah of hosts. {2:9} Therefore have I also made you contemptible and
base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but
have had respect of persons in the law. {2:10} Have we not all one
father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every
man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? {2:11}
Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of
Jehovah which he loveth, and hath married the daughter of a foreign
god. {2:12} Jehovah will cut off, to the man that doeth this, him that
waketh and him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him that
offereth an offering unto Jehovah of hosts. {2:13} And this again ye
do: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with
sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, neither
receiveth it with good will at your hand. {2:14} Yet ye say, Wherefore?
Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy
youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she is thy
companion, and the wife of thy covenant. {2:15} And did he not make
one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He
sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none
deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. {2:16} For I hate
putting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him that covereth
his garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore take heed
to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. {2:17} Ye have wearied
Jehovah with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In
that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah,
and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of justice?



   {3:1} Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his
temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he
cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. {3:2} But who can abide the day of his
coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a
refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: {3:3} and 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 unto Jehovah
offerings in righteousness. {3:4} Then shall the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in
ancient years. {3:5} And I will come near to you to judgment; and I
will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and
that turn aside the sojourner [from his right], and fear not me, saith
Jehovah of hosts. {3:6} For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O
sons of Jacob, are not consumed. {3:7} From the days of your fathers ye
have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return
unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye
say, Wherein shall we return? {3:8} Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. {3:9}
Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation.
{3:10} Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be
food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if
I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough [to receive it]. {3:11} And I 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 the time
in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. {3:12} And all nations shall call
you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.
{3:13} Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye
say, What have we spoken against thee? {3:14} Ye 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 Jehovah of hosts? {3:15} And now
we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up;
yea, they tempt God, and escape. {3:16} Then they that feared Jehovah
spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of
remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and
that thought upon his name. {3:17} And they shall be mine, saith
Jehovah of hosts, [even] mine own possession, in the day that I make;
and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
{3:18} Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.





   {4:1} For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all
the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor branch. {4:2} But unto you that fear my
name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings;
and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. {4:3} And ye
shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of
your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts. {4:4}
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in
Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. {4:5} Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of
Jehovah come. {4:6} And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse.




