The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message
1“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
2If you do not listen and take seriously the need to honor my name,” says the
3I am about to discipline your children and will spread offal on your faces, the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.
4Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant may continue to be with Levi,” says the
5“My covenant with him was designed to bring life and peace. I gave its statutes to him to fill him with awe, and he indeed revered me and stood in awe before me.
6He taught what was true; sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin.
7For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him because he is the messenger of the
8You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” says the
9“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your instruction.”
The Rebellion of the People
10Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?
11Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy things that the
12May the
13You also do this: You cover the altar of the
14Yet you ask, “Why?” The
15No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth.
16“I hate divorce,” says the
Resistance to the Lord through Self-deceit
17You have wearied the