Chronological
Jacob Loved Adonai
1 An oracle[a]: The word of Adonai to Israel by Malachi[b].
2 “I loved you,” says Adonai.
But you say: “How have you loved us?”
“Was Esau not Jacob’s brother?”
—it is the declaration of Adonai—
“Yet I loved Jacob 3 and Esau I hated.
I made his hills a wasteland
and gave his inheritance to jackals of the wilderness.”
4 For Edom may say,
“We have been beaten down,
but we will return and rebuild the ruins.”
Thus Adonai-Tzva’ot says:
“They may rebuild but I will tear down.
They will be called a wicked territory,
the people Adonai denounced forever.
5 So you will see, and you will say:
‘May Adonai be magnified beyond the border of Israel!’”
Despicable Sacrifices
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. So if I am Father, where is My honor? If I am Master, where is My reverence?”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“you, kohanim who despise My Name!”
But you say, “How did we despise Your Name?”
7 “By offering defiled bread on My altar.” But you say, “How did we defile You?” When you say, “The table of Adonai is despicable.”
8 “When you bring a blind one as sacrifice, is it not wrong? Or when you bring a lame or sick one, is it not wrong? Offer them now to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Or will he acknowledge you favorably?” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
9 “So now, implore God’s favor! Then, will He be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will He accept any of it from you?” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
10 “If just one of you would shut the doors, and not light My altar uselessly! I have no delight in you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “Nor will I accept any offering from your hand.
11 “For from sunrise to its setting[c] My Name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to My Name with a pure grain offering, for My Name will be great among the nations,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
12 But you are profaning it when you say, “The table of Adonai is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food—despicable!” 13 You also say, “It’s so tedious!”
“And you sniff at it,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “So you bring plunder, the lame and the sick. Then you bring them as the offering. Should I accept this from your hand?” says Adonai.
14 “Moreover, cursed is a deceiver who has in his flock a male, but makes a vow and sacrifices something blemished to my Lord. For I am a great King,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and My Name shall be revered among the nations.”
Warning to the Kohanim and Levites
2 “So now, kohanim, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not listen,
and if you will not take to heart to give glory to My Name”
—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—
“then I will send the curse on you,
and I will curse your blessings.
Yes, indeed I have cursed them,
because you did not take it to heart.
3 Behold, I am rebuking the seed on account of you,
and will spread dung on your faces
—the dung of your festivals—
and take you away together with it.
4 Then you will know that I have sent this command to you,
to be My covenant with Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
5 “My covenant was with him for life and shalom,
and I gave them to him for reverence.
So he revered Me, and he was awestruck by My Name.
6 Instruction of truth was in his mouth.
Injustice was not found on his lips.
In shalom and uprightness he walked with Me,
and he turned many from iniquity.
7 For a kohen’s lips should guard knowledge,
and instruction must be sought from his mouth.
For he is a messenger of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
8 But you have turned from the way.
You caused many to stumble in Torah by the instruction,
You corrupted the covenant of the Levites,”
—says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
9 “So I also have made you despised and lowly to all the people,
because you are not keeping My ways but show favoritism in Torah.”
10 Do we not all have one Father?
Has not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously
—a man against his brother—
defiling the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously,
an abomination done in Israel, even in Jerusalem!
For Judah has defiled Adonai’s Sanctuary,
which He loves,
and married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 Adonai will cut off the man who does this,
until he is cast from the tents of Jacob,
and from offering a gift to Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Covenant With Your Wife
13 Secondly, you do this:
Tears cover the altar of Adonai—
you are weeping and groaning
because He no longer accepts the offering
or receives it favorably from your hand.
14 Yet you say, “Why?”
Because Adonai bears witness
between you and the wife of your youth,
whom you have treated deceitfully.
Yet she had been your companion
and your wife by covenant.
15 Did the One not make her with a remnant of Ruach?
Then what is the One seeking?
Offspring of God!
So protect your spirit—
do not betray the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate[d] divorce,”
—says Adonai the God of Israel—
“and the one who covers his garment with injustice,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
So protect your spirit—do not act treacherously.
17 You wearied Adonai with your words.
Yet you say: “How did we weary Him?”
When you say: “Everyone doing evil is good in the sight of Adonai, and He delights in them.” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”
My Messenger is Coming
3 “Behold, I am sending My messenger[e],
and he will clear the way before Me.[f]
Suddenly He will come to His Temple
—the Lord whom you seek—
and the Messenger of the covenant
—the One whom you desire—
behold, He is coming,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
2 But who can endure the day of His coming?
Or who can stand when He appears?[g]
For He will be like a refiner’s fire,[h]
and like soap for cleaning raw wool.
3 And He will sit as a smelter or a purifier of silver,
and He will cleanse the sons of Levi,
and purify them like gold or silver.
Then they will become for Adonai
those who present an offering in righteousness.
4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Adonai,
as in days of antiquity and years of old.
5 “Then I will draw near to you in judgment,
and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers
those who extort a worker’s wage,
or oppress the widow or an orphan,
those who mislead a stranger.
They do not fear Me,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
6 “For I am Adonai. I do not change,
So you, children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Bring the Whole Tithe
7 “From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Yet you say: “How should we return?”
8 “Will a man rob[i] God? For you are robbing Me!”
But you say: “How have we robbed You?”
“In the tithe and the offering. 9 You have been cursed with the curse, yet you keep robbing Me—the whole nation! 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then there will be food in My House. Now test Me in this”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out blessing for you, until no one is without enough. 11 I will rebuke the devouring pest for you, so it will not destroy the fruit of your land, nor will your vine be barren in the field,” Adonai-Tzva’ot says. 12 “All the nations will call you blessed. For you will be a land of delight,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
13 “Your words against Me are grievous,” says Adonai.
Yet you say: “What did we say against You?”
14 You say: “Serving God is worthless.” Also: “What good is it that we kept His service or that we walked as mourners before Adonai-Tzva’ot? 15 So now we are calling the proud blessed. Those who practice iniquity are built up. Indeed, they have tested God, and escaped!”
16 Then those who revere Adonai spoke with each other, and Adonai took notice and heard, and a scroll of remembrance[j] was written before Him, for those who revere Adonai, even those who esteem His Name.
17 “So they shall be Mine,”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“in the day I make My own special possession. So I will spare them, as one spares his son serving him. 18 Then you will return and distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”
The Day Is Coming
19 [k]“For behold, the day is coming
—it will burn like a furnace—
when all the proud and every evildoer will become stubble.
The day that is coming will set them ablaze”
—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—
“leaving them neither root nor branch.”
20 “But for you who revere My Name,
the sun of righteousness will rise,
with healing in its wings.
Then you will go forth and skip about
like calves from the stall.
21 You will trample on the wicked,
for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet
in the day that I am making,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
22 “Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, whom I commanded at Horeb—statutes and ordinances for all Israel.
23 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet[l], before the coming of the great and terrible day of Adonai. 24 He will turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—else I will come and strike the land with utter destruction.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.