 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 have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob, 3 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 will build, but I will throw down. They will call them the region of wickedness and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever. 5 Your eyes will see and you will 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 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 the Lord, it is a thing to be despised. 8 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 the Lord of hosts? 9 Now entreat the face of God, that He favor us. This has been by your hands, will He lift up your faces, says the Lord 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 the Lord of hosts. I will not be pleased with an offering from you. 11 From the rising of the sun to its going down, my name will be great among the nations. Incense will be offered to my name everywhere, and a pure food offering. My name will 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 to be despised. 13 You also said, Behold, what a weariness it is. And you have puffed at it, says the Lord 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 the Lord? 14 But cursed be a deceiver. And there is in his flock a male, yet he vows it, but 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.
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