MalachiChapter 2
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1"And now, you priests, this command is for you. 2"If you do not listen,
and if you do not set your heart on honoring my name," says the LORD of Hosts,
"I will send a curse on you.
I will curse your blessings.
Yes, I have already begun to curse them,
because you are not taking this to heart. 3Look, I will rebuke your descendants.
I will smear dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts.
And you will be carried off with it. 4Then you will know that I sent you this command.
I sent it so that my covenant with Levi may go on," says the LORD of Hosts. 5"My covenant with Levi was one of life and peace.
I gave these things to him.
The covenant called for deep respect, and he respected me.
He stood in awe of my name. 6True teaching was in his mouth.
Nothing false was found on his lips.
He walked with me in peace and in what is right.
And he turned many people away from sin. 7A priest's lips should guard knowledge.
People should look to his mouth for teaching.
For he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts. 8But you have turned away from the right path.
Your teaching has caused many to stumble.
You have broken the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of Hosts. 9"So I have made you looked down on and shamed in front of all the people.
This is because you have not kept my ways.
You have played favorites when you teach the law." 10Do we not all have one Father?
Did not one God create us?
Then why do we break faith with one another?
By doing this, we dishonor the covenant of our fathers. 11Judah has broken faith.
A disgusting thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem.
For Judah has dishonored the holy place the LORD loves.
Judah did this by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.a 12As for the man who does this,
may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware.
May this happen even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.b 13Here is another thing you do.
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears.
You weep and groan,
because he no longer looks at your offerings.
He no longer accepts them gladly from your hands. 14Yet you ask, "Why?"
It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife you married when you were young.
You have broken faith with her.
But she is your partner and your wife by covenant. 15Did not the LORD make them one?
They have a portion of the Spirit.
And why one?
Because he is looking for godly children.
So guard yourselves in your spirit.
Do not break faith with the wife you married when you were young. 16"For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel.
"The man who divorces his wife covers his clothing with violence," says the LORD of Hosts.
So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not break faith. 17You have made the LORD tired with your words.
Yet you ask, "How have we made him tired?"
You do it by saying, "All who do evil are good in the LORD's eyes, and he is pleased with them."
Or you ask, "Where is the God of justice?"