Dual Panel1AN oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.
Religious decline and hope of recovery
2I HAVE shown you love, says the LORD. But you ask, “How have you shown love to us?” Is not Esau Jacob's brother? the LORD answers. Jacob I love,
3but Esau I hate, and I have reduced his hill-country to a waste, and his ancestral land to desert pastures.
4When Edom says, “We are beaten down, but let us rebuild our ruined homes,” these are the words of the LORD of Hosts: If they rebuild, I shall pull down. They will be called a country of wickedness, a people with whom the LORD is angry for ever.
5Your own eyes will see it, and you yourselves will say, “The LORD's greatness reaches beyond the confines of Israel.”
6A son honours his father and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the fear due to me? So says the LORD of Hosts to you, priests who despise my name. You ask, “How have we despised your name?”
7By offering defiled food on my altar. You ask, “How have we defiled you?” By saying that the table of the LORD may be despised,
8that if you offer a blind victim, there is nothing wrong, and if you offer a victim which is lame or sickly, there is nothing wrong. If you brought such a gift to your governor, would he receive you or show you favour? says the LORD of Hosts.
9But now, if you placate God, he may show you mercy! If you do this, will he withhold his favour from you? So the LORD of Hosts has spoken.
10Better far that one of you should close the great door altogether, to keep fire from being lit on my altar to no purpose! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of Hosts, nor will I accept any offering from you.
11From farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations, and everywhere incense and pure offerings are presented to my name; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of Hosts.
12But you profane me by thinking that the table of the LORD may be defiled, and you can offer on it food that you hold in no esteem.
13You sniff scornfully at it, says the LORD of Hosts, and exclaim, “How tiresome!” If you bring as your offering victims that are mutilated, lame, or sickly, am I to accept them from you? says the LORD.
14A curse on the cheat who pays his vows by sacrificing a damaged victim to the Lord, though he has a sound ram in his flock! I am a great king, says the LORD of Hosts, and my name is held in awe among the nations.