Malachi 1
- The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel
by Malachi.
- I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye
say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother? saith the LORD: yet
I loved Jacob,
- And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for
the dragons of the wilderness.
- Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished,
but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith
the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call
them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath
indignation for ever.
- And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified
from the border of Israel.
- A son honoureth his father,
and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master,
where is my fear? saith the
LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
- Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
- And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with
thee, or accept thy person? saith
the LORD of hosts.
- And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us:
this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
- Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire
on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering
at your hand.
- For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same
my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be
offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the
heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
- But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The
table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is
contemptible.
- Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is
it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith
the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the
sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
- But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the
LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith
the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
Malachi 2
- And now, O ye priests, this commandment
is for you.
- If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay
it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the
LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your
blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
- Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces,
even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
- And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my
covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
- My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him
for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
- The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his
lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from
iniquity.
- For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
- But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at
the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith
the LORD of hosts.
- Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the
people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
- Have we not all one father? hath not one
God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man
against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
- Judah hath dealt
treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel
and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of
the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
- The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the
scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth
an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
- And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with
tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth
not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good
will at your hand.
- Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD
hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy
covenant.
- And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the
wife of his youth.
- For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your
spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
- Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every
one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Malachi 3
- Behold, I will send my messenger, and he
shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to this temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:
behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
- But who may abide the day of his coming? and
who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a
refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
- 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.
- Then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem
be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
- 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 false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in
his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from
his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
- For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed.
- Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine
ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you,
saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
- Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings.
- Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole
nation.
- Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the
LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
- And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not
destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the LORD of
hosts.
- And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Your words have been stout against me, saith
the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much
against thee?
- Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and
what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked
mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
- And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are
set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
- Then they that feared the LORD spake
often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that
thought upon his name.
- And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of
hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth
him.
- Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
Malachi 4
- For, behold, the day cometh, that shall
burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith
the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the
stall.
- And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the
soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith
the LORD of hosts.
- Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel,
with the statutes and judgments.
- Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the LORD:
- And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the
heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse.