AFV2020 - Malachi

Chapter 1

1:1  The burden of the Word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

1:2  "I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you say, 'In what way do You love us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD. "Yet I loved Jacob.

1:3  And I hated Esau and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness."

1:4  If Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,"—thus says the LORD of hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall be called the border of wickedness, and the people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.

1:5  And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The LORD will 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 the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. And you say, 'In what way do we despise Your name?'

1:7  You offer defiled bread upon My altar. And you say, 'In what way do we defile You?' In your saying, 'The table of the LORD is contemptible.'

1:8  And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to your governor. Will he be pleased with you, or accept your person?" says the LORD of hosts.

1:9  "And now entreat the favor of God, that He will be gracious unto you. This has been by your own hand— and now will He show regard for you?" says the LORD of hosts.

1:10  "Who is there among you who will even shut the temple doors or kindle a fire on My altar without being paid? I have no pleasure in you," says the LORD of hosts. "I will not accept an offering from your hand,

1:11  For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering, for My name shall be great among the nations," says the LORD of hosts.

1:12  "But you are profaning it when you say, 'The table of the LORD, it is polluted; and its fruit, His food, is contemptible.'

1:13  You also said, 'Behold, what a weariness it is!' And you have snuffed at it in contempt," says the LORD of hosts. "And you bring that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick, and thus you brought an offering. Should I accept it from your hand?" says the LORD.

1:14  "But cursed be a deceiver who has in his flock an acceptable male—yet he vows and 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."

Chapter 2

2:1  "And now, O priests, this commandment is for you.

2:2  If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name," says the LORD of hosts, "then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have indeed cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart.

2:3  Behold, I will rebuke your seed; and I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your appointed feasts. And one shall carry you away with it.

2:4  And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, so that My covenant might be with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

2:5  "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him for fear; that he might fear Me, and he was in awe before My name.

2:6  The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and turned away many from iniquity,

2:7  For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and the people should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

2:8  But you have departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

2:9  "Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, just as you have not kept My ways but have been partial in the law."

2:10  Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously, each man against his brother, by 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 sanctuary of the LORD which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

2:12  The LORD will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this—the one who calls and the one who answers—and him who offers an offering to the LORD of hosts.

2:13  And this is a second thing you have done, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, weeping and groaning, so that He does not regard the offering and no longer receives it with delight from your hand.

2:14  Yet you say, "Why?" Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously—yet she is your companion and your covenant wife.

2:15  And did He not make you one? Yet the vestige of the Spirit is in him. And why one? That He might seek a godly seed. Therefore guard your spirit, and do not act treacherously against the wife of your youth.

2:16  The LORD, the God of Israel, says, "I hate divorce—and the covering of violence with one's garment," says the LORD of hosts. "Therefore guard your spirit, and do not act treacherously."

2:17  You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "In what way have we wearied Him?" When you say, "Every evildoer is good in the eyes of the LORD, and He delights in them;" or, "Where is the God of judgment?"

Chapter 3

3:1  "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, Whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in Whom you delight. Behold, He comes," says the LORD of hosts.

3:2  "But who can endure 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 shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

3:4  Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old and as in former years.

3:5  And I will come near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who extort from the hired laborer's wages—and against those who turn away the widow, the orphan, and the stranger because they did not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts,

3:6  "For I am the LORD, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

3:7  From the days of your fathers, you have gone away from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say. 'In what way shall we return?'

3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings!

3:9  You are cursed with a curse; for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation.

3:10  Bring all the tithes into the treasure house, so that there may be food in My house. And prove Me now with this," says the LORD of hosts, "to see if I will not surely open the windows of heaven for you, and pour out a blessing for you, until there is not enough room to receive it.

3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and it shall not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field," says the LORD of hosts.

3:12  "And all nations shall call you blessed; for you shall be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts.

3:13  "Your words have been all too strong against Me," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken so strongly against You?'

3:14  You 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 the LORD of hosts?

3:15  And now we are calling the arrogant blessed. Yea, they that work wickedness are built up, they even tempt God, and are delivered.' ”

3:16  Then those fearing the LORD spoke together, each man to his neighbor. And the LORD listened and heard. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the LORD, and for those who thought upon His name.

3:17  "And they shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "in the day that I will make up My own special jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."

3:18  Then you shall return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God, and the one who does not serve Him.

Chapter 4

4:1  "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a consuming oven; and all the proud, and every doer of wickedness, shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up," says the LORD of hosts, "and will leave them neither root nor branch.

4:2  But unto you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise, and healing will be in His wings. And you shall go out and grow up like calves of the stall.

4:3  And you shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts.

4:4  "Remember the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

4:6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with utter destruction."