LITV - Malachi

Chapter 1

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

1:2  I have loved you, says Jehovah. But you say, In what way have You loved us? Was not Esau the brother to Jacob? Yet Jehovah declares, I loved Jacob,

1:3  and I have hated Esau and have 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 ruined places; so says Jehovah of hosts: They shall build, but I will tear down. And they shall call them the region of wickedness, and the people with whom Jehovah is indignant until forever.

1:5  And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, Jehovah 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 Jehovah of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, In what have we despised Your name?

1:7  You are offering defiled food on My altar, and you say, In what have we defiled You? It is in your saying, The table of Jehovah, it is to be despicable.

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? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you or lift up your face? says Jehovah of hosts.

1:9  And now entreat the face of God, that He favor us. This has been by your hands; will He lift up your faces? says Jehovah of hosts.

1:10  Who is even among you that will shut the doors, and you not kindle fire on My altar in vain? There is no delight to Me in you, says Jehovah of hosts. I will not be pleased with a food offering from you.

1:11  For from the east to the west, My name shall be great among the nations, and everywhere incense shall be offered to My name; and a pure food offering; for My name shall be great among the nations, says Jehovah 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 despicable.

1:13  And you have said, Behold, what weariness! And you have sniffed at it, says Jehovah of hosts. And you bring plunder, and the lame, and the sick; and you bring the meal offering. Should I accept it from your hand? says Jehovah.

1:14  But cursed be a deceiver and there is a male in his flock, yet he vows it , but he sacrifices a blemished one to the Lord. For I am a great King, says Jehovah of hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.

Chapter 2

2:1  And now, O priests, this command is to you.

2:2  If you will not hear, and if you will not set it on your heart to give glory to My name, says Jehovah of hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed, I have cursed it, because you are not setting it on your heart.

2:3  Behold, I am rebuking your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will lift you up to it.

2:4  And you shall know that I have sent this command to you, to be My covenant with Levi, says Jehovah of hosts.

2:5  My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him for fear; and he feared Me, and he is put in awe before My name.

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

2:7  For the lips of the priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.

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

2:9  So I have also made you despised and low to all the people, just as you have not kept My ways, but are lifting up faces in the law.

2:10  Is there not one father to us all? Has not one God created us? Why do we act deceitfully, each man with his brother, to profane the covenant of our fathers?

2:11  Judah has dealt treacherously, and has done an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holy place of Jehovah, which He loves and has married a daughter of a foreign god.

2:12  Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does it, he stirring and answering, or offering a food offering to Jehovah of hosts.

2:13  And this is a second thing you have done: covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and groaning; yet not facing toward the food offering, and taking it with delight from your hand.

2:14  Yet you say, On what cause ? Because Jehovah has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously; and she is your companion and your covenant wife.

2:15  And has He not made you one? Yet the vestige of the Spirit is in him. And what of the one? He was seeking a seed of God. Then guard your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.

2:16  Jehovah, the God of Israel, says, He hates sending away, and to cover with violence on his garment, says Jehovah of hosts. Then guard your spirit and do not act treacherously.

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

Chapter 3

3:1  Behold, I am sending My messenger, and He will clear the way before Me. And the Lord whom you are seeking shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Angel of the Covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He comes, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:2  But who can endure the day of His coming? And who will 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 like gold and like silver, that they may be presenters of a food offering in righteousness to Jehovah.

3:4  Then the food offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to Jehovah, 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 swearing to a lie; and against those who extort from the hired laborer's pay; and turning away the widow, and the fatherless, and the alien, and not fearing Me, says Jehovah of hosts.

3:6  For I am Jehovah, I change not. Because of this, you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.

3:7  From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them . Return to Me, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts. But you say, In what shall we return?

3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, In what have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering!

3:9  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the nation, all of it.

3:10  Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. And test Me now with this, says Jehovah of hosts, whether I will not open the windows of the heavens for you and pour out a blessing until there is no sufficiency.

3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground against you; nor shall your vine miscarry against you in the field, says Jehovah of hosts.

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

3:13  Your words have been strong against Me, says Jehovah. Yet you say, What have we spoken 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 as mourners before Jehovah of hosts?

3:15  And now we are calling the arrogant blessed. Not only are the doers of wickedness built up, they also test God, and escape.

3:16  Then those fearing Jehovah spoke together, each man to his neighbor. And Jehovah gave attention and heard. And a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Jehovah, and for those esteeming His name.

3:17  And they shall be Mine, says Jehovah of hosts, for the day that I will make up My treasure. And I will pity them as a man has pity on his son who serves him.

3:18  Then you shall again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.

Chapter 4

4:1  For, behold, the day is coming, burning like a fire pot; and all the proud and every doer of wickedness shall be chaff. And the coming day will set them ablaze, says Jehovah of hosts, which will not leave root or branches to them.

4:2  But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise up, and healing will be on His wings. And you shall go out and frisk like calves of the stall.

4:3  And you shall tread under the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day which I am preparing, says Jehovah of hosts.

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

4:5  Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Jehovah.

4:6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, that I not come and strike the earth with utter destruction. END OF THE OLD TESTAMENT