1 A prophecy:^(A) The word^(B) of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.^[a]

Israel Doubts God’s Love

² “I have loved^(C) you,” says the Lord.

“But you ask,^(D) ‘How have you loved us?’

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,^{(E) 3} but Esau I have hated,^(F) and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland^(G) and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.^(H)”

⁴ Edom^(I) may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild^(J) the ruins.”

But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish.^(K) They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.^{(L) 5} You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great^(M) is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’^(N)

Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices

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

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

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

⁷ “By offering defiled food^(T) on my altar.

“But you ask,^(U) ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the Lord’s table^(V) is contemptible. ⁸ When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals,^(W) is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased^(X) with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.^(Y)

⁹ “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings^(Z) from your hands, will he accept^(AA) you?”—says the Lord Almighty.

¹⁰ “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors,^(AB) so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased^(AC) with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept^(AD) no offering^(AE) from your hands. ¹¹ My name will be great^(AF) among the nations,^(AG) from where the sun rises to where it sets.^(AH) In every place incense^(AI) and pure offerings^(AJ) will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.

¹² “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table^(AK) is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food^(AL) is contemptible.’ ¹³ And you say, ‘What a burden!’^(AM) and you sniff at it contemptuously,^(AN)” says the Lord Almighty.

“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices,^(AO) should I accept them from your hands?”^(AP) says the Lord. ¹⁴ “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal^(AQ) to the Lord. For I am a great king,^(AR)” says the Lord Almighty,^(AS) “and my name is to be feared^(AT) among the nations.^(AU)

Additional Warning to the Priests

2 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you.^{(AV) 2} If you do not listen,^(AW) and if you do not resolve to honor^(AX) my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse^(AY) on you, and I will curse your blessings.^(AZ) Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

³ “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants^[b]; I will smear on your faces the dung^(BA) from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.^{(BB) 4} And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi^(BC) may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁵ “My covenant was with him, a covenant^(BD) of life and peace,^(BE) and I gave them to him; this called for reverence^(BF) and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. ⁶ True instruction^(BG) was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked^(BH) with me in peace^(BI) and uprightness,^(BJ) and turned many from sin.^(BK)

⁷ “For the lips of a priest^(BL) ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger^(BM) of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.^{(BN) 8} But you have turned from the way^(BO) and by your teaching have caused many to stumble;^(BP) you have violated the covenant^(BQ) with Levi,”^(BR) says the Lord Almighty. ⁹ “So I have caused you to be despised^(BS) and humiliated^(BT) before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality^(BU) in matters of the law.”^(BV)

Breaking Covenant Through Divorce

¹⁰ Do we not all have one Father^[c]?^(BW) Did not one God create us?^(BX) Why do we profane the covenant^(BY) of our ancestors by being unfaithful^(BZ) to one another?

¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable^(CA) thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves^(CB) by marrying^(CC) women who worship a foreign god.^{(CD) 12} As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove^(CE) him from the tents of Jacob^[d](CF)—even though he brings an offering^(CG) to the Lord Almighty.

¹³ Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears.^(CH) You weep and wail^(CI) because he no longer looks with favor^(CJ) on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.^{(CK) 14} You ask,^(CL) “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness^(CM) between you and the wife of your youth.^(CN) You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.^(CO)

¹⁵ Has not the one God made you?^(CP) You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.^[e](CQ) So be on your guard,^(CR) and do not be unfaithful^(CS) to the wife of your youth.

¹⁶ “The man who hates and divorces his wife,^(CT)” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”^[f](CU) says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard,^(CV) and do not be unfaithful.

Breaking Covenant Through Injustice

¹⁷ You have wearied^(CW) the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.^(CX)

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased^(CY) with them” or “Where is the God of justice?^(CZ)”

3 “I will send my messenger,^(DA) who will prepare the way before me.^(DB) Then suddenly the Lord^(DC) you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,^(DD) whom you desire,^(DE) will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

² But who can endure^(DF) the day of his coming?^(DG) Who can stand^(DH) when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire^(DI) or a launderer’s soap.^{(DJ) 3} He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;^(DK) he will purify^(DL) the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.^(DM) Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,^{(DN) 4} and the offerings^(DO) of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.^(DP)

⁵ “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers,^(DQ) adulterers^(DR) and perjurers,^(DS) against those who defraud laborers of their wages,^(DT) who oppress the widows^(DU) and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners^(DV) among you of justice, but do not fear^(DW) me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

⁶ “I the Lord do not change.^(DX) So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.^{(DY) 7} Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away^(DZ) from my decrees and have not kept them. Return^(EA) to me, and I will return to you,”^(EB) says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask,^(EC) ‘How are we to return?’

⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob^(ED) God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes^(EE) and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse^(EF)—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe^(EG) into the storehouse,^(EH) that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates^(EI) of heaven and pour out^(EJ) so much blessing^(EK) that there will not be room enough to store it.^{(EL) 11} I will prevent pests from devouring^(EM) your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,^(EN)” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed,^(EO) for yours will be a delightful land,”^(EP) says the Lord Almighty.^(EQ)

Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God

¹³ “You have spoken arrogantly^(ER) against me,” says the Lord.

“Yet you ask,^(ES) ‘What have we said against you?’

¹⁴ “You have said, ‘It is futile^(ET) to serve^(EU) God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements^(EV) and going about like mourners^(EW) before the Lord Almighty? ¹⁵ But now we call the arrogant^(EX) blessed. Certainly evildoers^(EY) prosper,^(EZ) and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”

The Faithful Remnant

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.^(FA) A scroll^(FB) of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared^(FC) the Lord and honored his name.

¹⁷ “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my^(FD) treasured possession.^(FE) I will spare^(FF) them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son^(FG) who serves him. ¹⁸ And you will again see the distinction between the righteous^(FH) and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.^(FI)

Judgment and Covenant Renewal

4 ^[g]“Surely the day is coming;^(FJ) it will burn like a furnace.^(FK) All the arrogant^(FL) and every evildoer will be stubble,^(FM) and the day that is coming will set them on fire,^(FN)” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch^(FO) will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my name,^(FP) the sun of righteousness^(FQ) will rise with healing^(FR) in its rays. And you will go out and frolic^(FS) like well-fed calves. ³ Then you will trample^(FT) on the wicked; they will be ashes^(FU) under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

⁴ “Remember the law^(FV) of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb^(FW) for all Israel.^(FX)

⁵ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah^(FY) to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.^{(FZ) 6} He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children,^(GA) and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike^(GB) the land with total destruction.”^(GC)

Psalm 2

⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

9 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.^(A) The star was given the key^(B) to the shaft of the Abyss.^{(C) 2} When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.^(D) The sun and sky were darkened^(E) by the smoke from the Abyss.^{(F) 3} And out of the smoke locusts^(G) came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions^(H) of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm^(I) the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^(J) but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{(K) 5} They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^(L) And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^(M) when it strikes. ⁶ During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.^(N)

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.^(O) On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.^{(P) 8} Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.^{(Q) 9} They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.^{(R) 10} They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.^{(S) 11} They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss,^(T) whose name in Hebrew^(U) is Abaddon^(V) and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹² The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.^(W)

¹³ The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns^(X) of the golden altar that is before God.^{(Y) 14} It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels^(Z) who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”^{(AA) 15} And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released^(AB) to kill a third^(AC) of mankind.^{(AD) 16} The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.^(AE)

¹⁷ The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths^(AF) came fire, smoke and sulfur.^{(AG) 18} A third^(AH) of mankind was killed^(AI) by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur^(AJ) that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰ The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent^(AK) of the work of their hands;^(AL) they did not stop worshiping demons,^(AM) and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.^{(AN) 21} Nor did they repent^(AO) of their murders, their magic arts,^(AP) their sexual immorality^(AQ) or their thefts.