ACV - Malachi

Chapter 1

1:1  The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.

1:2  I have loved you, says Jehovah. Yet ye say, How have thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says Jehovah. Yet I loved Jacob,

1:3  but Esau I regarded inferior, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.

1:4  Whereas Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places, thus says 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 has indignation forever.

1:5  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border of Israel.

1:6  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 Jehovah of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. And ye say, How have we despised thy name?

1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar. And ye say, How have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible.

1:8  And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, ye say, It is no evil! and when ye offer the lame and sick, It is no evil! Present it now to thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or will he accept thy person? says Jehovah of hosts.

1:9  Ye say, And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us; this has been by your means. Will he accept any of your persons? says Jehovah of hosts.

1:10  Oh that there was among you who would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says Jehovah of hosts, nor will I accept an offering at your hand.

1:11  For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name is great among the Gentiles, says Jehovah of hosts.

1:12  But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of Jehovah is polluted. And the fruit of it, even its food, is contemptible.

1:13  Ye also say, Behold, what a weariness it is! And ye have sniffed at it, says 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? says Jehovah.

1:14  But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a blemished thing. For I am a great King, says Jehovah of hosts, and my name is feared among the Gentiles.

Chapter 2

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 to my name, says Jehovah of hosts, then I will 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 to you, that my covenant may be with Levi, says Jehovah of hosts.

2:5  My covenant of life and peace was with him. 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, says Jehovah of hosts.

2:9  Therefore I also have 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? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

2:11  Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

2:12  Jehovah will cut off out of the tents of Jacob, the man who does this: him who wakes, and him who answers, and him who offers an offering to 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 does not regard the offering any more, nor receives it with good will at your hand.

2:14  Yet ye say, Why? Because Jehovah has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou have 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 why 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, says Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him who covers his garment with violence, says 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, How have we wearied him? In that ye say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delights in them, or Where is the God of justice?

Chapter 3

3:1  Behold, I send my agent, 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 comes, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:2  But who can abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? 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 to Jehovah offerings in righteousness.

3:4  Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to 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 who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who turn aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:6  For I, Jehovah, do not change. Therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

3:7  From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, How shall we return?

3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye rob me. But ye say, How 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 storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now with this, says Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for it.

3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, nor shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:12  And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightful land, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:13  Your words have been stout against me, says 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, those who work wickedness are built up. Yea, they challenge God, and escape.

3:16  Then those who feared Jehovah spoke one with another, and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who feared Jehovah, and who thought upon his name.

3:17  And they shall be mine, says Jehovah of hosts, my own possession, in the day that I make. And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

3:18  Then ye shall return and discern between the righteous man and the wicked man, between him who serves God and him who does not serve him.

Chapter 4

4:1  For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace, and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up, says Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

4:2  But to you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings, and ye shall go forth, and frolic 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, says Jehovah of hosts.

4:4  Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and fearful day of Jehovah comes.

4:6  And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.