Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices

⁶ “A son honors his father,^(A) and a slave his master.^(B) If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect^(C) due me?” says the Lord Almighty.^(D)

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

“But you ask,^(E) ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

⁵ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ ⁶ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes;^(A) if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Widows, Elders and Slaves

5 Do not rebuke an older man^(A) harshly,^(B) but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men^(C) as brothers, ² older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

² Teach the older men^(A) to be temperate,^(B) worthy of respect, self-controlled,^(C) and sound in faith,^(D) in love and in endurance.

³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers^(E) or addicted to much wine,^(F) but to teach what is good.