Malachi 1

¹ An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

² I have loved you, says the LORD; but you say, "How have you loved us?"

³ Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, but hated Esau; I made his mountains a waste, his heritage a desert for jackals.

⁴ If Edom says, "We have been crushed but we will rebuild the ruins," Thus says the LORD of hosts: They indeed may build, but I will tear down, And they shall be called the land of guilt, the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.

⁵ Your own eyes shall see it, and you will say, "Great is the LORD, even beyond the land of Israel."

⁶ A son honors his father, and a servant fears his master; If then I am a father, where is the honor due to me? And if I am a master, where is the reverence due to me?-- So says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise his name. But you ask, "How have we despised your name?"

⁷ By offering polluted food on my altar! Then you ask, "How have we polluted it?" By saying the table of the LORD may be slighted!

⁸ When you offer a blind animal for sacrifice, is this not evil? When you offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Present it to your governor; see if he will accept it, or welcome you, says the LORD of hosts.

⁹ So now if you implore God for mercy on us, when you have done the like Will he welcome any of you? says the LORD of hosts.

¹⁰ Oh, that one among you would shut the temple gates to keep you from kindling fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts; neither will I accept any sacrifice from your hands,

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

¹² But you behave profanely toward me by thinking the LORD'S table and its offering may be polluted, and its food slighted.

¹³ You also say, "What a burden!" and you scorn it, says the LORD of hosts; You bring in what you seize, or the lame, or the sick; yes, you bring it as a sacrifice. Shall I accept it from your hands? says the LORD.

¹⁴ Cursed is the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, but under his vow sacrifices to the LORD a gelding; For a great King am I, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.