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

1:2 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,

1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage

waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

1:4 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.

1:5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be

magnified from the border of Israel.

1:6 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?

1:7 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.

1:8 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.

1:9 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.

1:10 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.

1:11 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.

1:12 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.

1:13 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.

1:14 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.

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 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.

2:3 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.

2:4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto

you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of

hosts.

2:5 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.

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 equity, and

did turn 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 the

LORD of hosts.

2:8 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.

2:9 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.

2:10 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?

2:11 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.

2:12 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.

2:13 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.

2:14 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.

2:15 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.

2:16 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.

2:17 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?

3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the

way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come

to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye

delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

3:2 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:

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 shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant

unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former 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 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.

3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of

Jacob are not consumed.

3:7 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?

3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,

Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

3:9 Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even]

this whole nation.

3:10 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].

3:11 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.

3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a

delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

3:13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet

ye say, What have we spoken [so much] against thee?

3:14 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?

3:15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work

wickedness are set up; yea, [they that] tempt God are even

delivered.

3:16 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.

3:17 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.

3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and

the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth

him not.

4:1 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.

4:2 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.

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 shall do [this],

saith the LORD of hosts.

4:4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded

unto 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 children,

and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and

smite the earth with a curse.