MALACHI
1 The heavy word of Yahweh to Israel from the hand of Malachi:
2 Yahweh says, “I have loved you!” But you are saying, “In what way have you loved us?” “Isn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” is Yahweh’s response, “yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have appointed his mountain to be a wasteland and his inheritance to the beasts of the desert.”
4 For Edom says, “We were destroyed, but we will rebuild the ruins!” Therefore Yahweh of Warriors says, “These people…they will build, but I will knock down! They will be called ‘the land of wickedness,’ and ‘the people with whom Yahweh is incensed until the Age.’ 5 And you will see this with your own eyes, and you will say, “May Yahweh be magnified even beyond the border of Israel!”
6 “A son will honour his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my fear?” says Yahweh of Warriors to you, the priests, who disregard my name. But you will say, “How have we disregarded your name?” 7 It’s those who bring defiled food on my altar. Yet you are saying, “How have we defiled you?” In saying Yahweh’s table is to be disregarded! 8 For you bring the blind to sacrifice – is that not evil? Also the lame and sick – is that not evil too? Tell you what, present that to the governor and see if he is pleased with you or will welcome you, says Yahweh of Warriors. 9 So now, I say, humble yourselves to God’s face and he will show us favour. While this is what comes from your hand, why should he accept you? says Yahweh of Warriors.
10 Would one of you just shut the doors so you will stop lighting up my altar pointlessly! I take no pleasure in you, says Yahweh of Warriors, nor will I accept any offering from your hand. 11 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 is great among the nations, says Yahweh of Warriors. 12 But you are profaning him when you say, ‘My Lord’s table is defiled, and its fruit – his food – is disregarded.’ 13 You also say, ‘Look, how boring is this?’ and you sigh about it, says Yahweh of Warriors. And you bring what has been violently stolen, and the lame, and the sick, and this is your offering! Should I accept this from your hand? says Yahweh. 14 But cursed be the deceiver who has a male in his flock, but he vows and sacrifices what is blemished to ‘my Lord,’ because I am a great king, says Yahweh of Warriors, and my name will be feared among the nations.
2 And now, O priests, this command is for you:
2 If you won’t listen, and if you won’t put it on your heart to give glory to my name, says Yahweh of Warriors, then I will send the curse into you and curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them because none of you take this to heart.
3 Hey, pay attention to my rebuke of you, ‘the seed!’ Yes, I will spread manure on your faces, the manure of your festivals, and you will be wiped away along with it. 4 Then you will know that I committed this command to you in order to maintain my covenant with Levi. 5 For him my covenant was ‘the living and the wholeness’. And from that I gave him reverence, and he feared me, and he was broken before my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. He walked with me in wholeness and uprightness, and he helped many to turn away from evil.
7 For the lips of the priest must preserve knowledge, and the people will seek the law from his mouth, because he is a messenger of Yahweh of Warriors. 8 Instead you have turned from the way and made many stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahweh of Warriors, 9 and so I have made you hated and demeaned before all the people – according to the way in which none of you keep my ways but show partiality with the law. 10 Haven’t we all one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why then does each man treat his brother deceitfully, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has acted deceitfully and has committed an abomination in Israel and Jerusalem. For he profaned the Holy Place of Yahweh, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob every man who does this, both the tempter and the one who responds, and brings an offering to Yahweh of Warriors.
13 Then this second thing you do: you flood Yahweh’s altar with tears, weeping and moaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it favourably from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why is that?” It’s because Yahweh was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you acted deceitfully even though she is your companion and wife by your covenant. 15 Did he not make you one, and give a portion of spirit to the union? And what is that one seeking? Godly seed! So you are guarded both in your spirit and with the wife of your youth – he mustn’t go on acting deceitfully 16 by hating her and sending her away, says Yahweh, the Godhead of Israel. He will be dressing himself with violence, says Yahweh of Warriors. Yes, you are guarded in your spirit, so do not act deceitfully!
17 You have worn Yahweh out with your words, yet you say, “How have we worn him out?” It’s when you say, “All who do evil are good in Yahweh’s eyes, and he delights in them,” or, “Where is the judgment of the Godhead?” (3:1) Look at me sending my messenger! Yes, he will prepare the way before me. Then, suddenly, the Lord whom you seek will enter his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.
Watch, he is coming! says Yahweh of Warriors, 2 and who can handle the day of his entrance? Yes, who will stand at his appearing? For he is like a refiner’s fire, like a cleaner’s soap. 3 So he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver – yes, he will cleanse the sons of Levi and purge them like the gold and the silver, and to Yahweh they will be men who make an offering in righteousness. 4 So Judah and Jerusalem’s offering will be pleasing to Yahweh as in days of old and as in earlier years. 5 Then I will come to you for the judgment, and I will be a witness hastening among the sorcerers, the adulterers, those who vow to the lie, and the oppressors of the worker in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and he who turns the traveller away, and those who don’t fear me, says Yahweh of Warriors.
6 For I, Yahweh, do not change. Therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not finished, 7 even though since the days of your fathers you turned away from my statutes and you haven’t kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says Yahweh of Warriors. But you said, “Why must we return? 8 Can a man rob God?” Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In the tithe and the offering! 9 You cursed people are being cursed because you are robbing me – the whole nation! 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so there may be food in my house. In fact, go on, test me in this! says Yahweh of Warriors. See if I don’t open the windows of the heavens for you and pour out blessing upon you until there’s beyond enough! 11 And on your account I will rebuke the devourer so that he won’t destroy the fruit of the soil for you, and the vine in the field won’t be barren for you, says Yahweh of Warriors. 12 Then all the nations will call you blessed because you – yes you! – will be a land of delight, says Yahweh of Warriors.
13 Your words against me have been strong, says Yahweh. But you say, “How have we spoken against you?” 14 You have said, “It is a waste of time to serve the Godhead! And what’s the point of us keeping watch for him or in walking like mourners before Yahweh of Warriors? 15 And now we call the arrogant blessed, and evildoers prosper – yes they test the Godhead and get away with it!”’
16 At that time those who feared Yahweh spoke to each other and Yahweh took note. He listened, and a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence of them who feared Yahweh and were mindful of his name. 17 Yes, they belong to me, says Yahweh of Warriors, for the day when I will make them a treasured possession, and I will have pity on them as a man has pity on his son who serves him. 18 Then you will return and you will distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between someone who serves the Godhead and he who does not.
4 So take note! The day is coming, burning like the furnace, when all the arrogant and those behaving wickedly will be stubble. Then the day that is coming will set them on fire, says Yahweh of Warriors, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, a sun of righteousness will shine with healing in her wings. Then you will go out and you will frolic about like a calf from a stall. 3 And you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day which I am preparing, says Yahweh of Warriors.
4 Remember the Law of my servant Moses, the statutes and judgments over all of Israel, that I commanded him in Horeb. 5 Note this, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and horrific Day of Yahweh 6 and he will turn the hearts of fathers to sons, and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with final destruction.