Malachi 2

English Standard Version

The Lord Rebukes the Priests

2 “And now, ^(A)O priests, ^(B)this command is for you. ²^(C)If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send ^(D)the curse upon you and I will curse ^(E)your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. ³Behold, ^(F)I will rebuke your offspring,^[a] and ^(G)spread dung on your faces, the ^(H)dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.^[b] ⁴So shall you know that I have sent ^(I)this command to you, that ^(J)my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. ⁵My covenant with him was one of life and ^(K)peace, and I gave them to him. ^(L)It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. ⁶^(M)True instruction^[c] was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he ^(N)turned many from iniquity. ⁷For ^(O)the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people^[d] should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. ⁸But you have turned aside from the way. ^(P)You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted ^(Q)the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, ⁹and so ^(R)I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but ^(S)show partiality in your instruction.”

Judah Profaned the Covenant

¹⁰Have we not all ^(T)one Father? Has not ^(U)one God created us? Why then are we ^(V)faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? ¹¹Judah has been ^(W)faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For ^(X)Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. ¹²May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant^[e] of the man who does this, who ^(Y)brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

¹³And this second thing you do. ^(Z)You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. ¹⁴^(AA)But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord ^(AB)was witness between you and the wife of your youth, ^(AC)to whom ^(AD)you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵^(AE)Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?^[f] And what was the one God^[g] seeking?^[h] ^(AF)Godly offspring. So guard yourselves^[i] in your spirit, and let none of you be ^(AG)faithless to the wife of your youth. ¹⁶“For ^(AH)the man who does not love his wife but divorces her,^[j] says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers^[k] his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and ^(AI)do not be faithless.”

The Messenger of the Lord

¹⁷^(AJ)You have wearied the Lord with your words. ^(AK)But you say, “How have we wearied him?” ^(AL)By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, ^(AM)“Where is the God of justice?”

Footnotes

Malachi 2:3 Hebrew seed
Malachi 2:3 Or to it
Malachi 2:6 Or law; also verses 7, 8, 9
Malachi 2:7 Hebrew they
Malachi 2:12 Hebrew any who wakes and answers
Malachi 2:15 Hebrew in it
Malachi 2:15 Hebrew the one
Malachi 2:15 Or And not one has done this who has a portion of the Spirit. And what was that one seeking?
Malachi 2:15 Or So take care; also verse 16
Malachi 2:16 Hebrew who hates and divorces
Malachi 2:16 Probable meaning (compare Septuagint and Deuteronomy 24:1–4); or “The Lord, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and him who covers

Jeremiah 3:1-15

English Standard Version

3 ^(A)“If^[a] a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
    will he return to her?
^(B)Would not that land be greatly polluted?
^(C)You have played the whore with many lovers;
    and would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
²Lift up your eyes to ^(D)the bare heights, and see!
    Where have you not been ravished?
^(E)By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
    like an Arab in the wilderness.
^(F)You have polluted the land
    with your vile whoredom.
³^(G)Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have ^(H)the forehead of a whore;
    you refuse to be ashamed.
⁴Have you not just now ^(I)called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
⁵^(J)will he be angry forever,
    will he be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶The Lord said to me in the days of ^(K)King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, ^(L)how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there ^(M)played the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^(N)sister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^(O)I had sent her away with ^(P)a decree of divorce. ^(Q)Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^(R)and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^(S)stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^(T)with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹And the Lord said to me, ^(U)“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward ^(V)the north, and say,

^(W)“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
    for ^(X)I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
^(Y)I will not be angry forever.
¹³^(Z)Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under ^(AA)every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the Lord.
¹⁴^(AB)Return, O faithless children,
declares the Lord;
    ^(AC)for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
    and I will bring you to Zion.