Historical
Malachi
1 A complaint against Israel, and chiefly the Priests.
1 The [a]burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the ministry of Malachi.
2 I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, [b]Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I [c][d]hated Esau, and made his mountains waste, and his heritage a wilderness for dragons.
4 Though Edom say, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places: yet saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will destroy it, and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and the people, with whom the Lord is angry forever.
5 And your eyes shall see it, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified upon the border of Israel.
6 A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, [e]O Priests that despise my Name? and ye say, [f]Wherein have we despised thy Name?
7 Ye offer [g]unclean bread upon mine altar: and you say, Wherein have we polluted thee? in that ye say, The table of the Lord is not [h]to be regarded.
8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is [i]not evil: and if ye offer the lame and sick, it is not evil: offer it now unto thy princes: will he be content with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts?
9 And now I pray you, [j]pray before God that he may have mercy upon us: this hath been by your means: will he regard [k]your persons, saith the Lord of hosts?
10 Who is there even among you [l]that would shut the doors, and kindle not fire on mine altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
11 For from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, my Name is [m]great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a pure offering: for my Name is great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 But ye have polluted it, in that ye say, [n]The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof even his meat is not to be regarded.
13 Ye said also, Behold, it is a [o]weariness, and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts, and ye offered that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick: thus ye offered an offering: should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord?
14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock [p]a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my Name is terrible among the heathen.
2 1 Threatenings against the Priests, being seducers of the people.
1 And now, O ye [q]Priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If ye will not hear it, nor consider it in your heart, to give glory [r]unto my Name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and will curse your [s]blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not consider it in your heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt [t]your seed, and cast dung upon your faces, even the [u]dung of your solemn feasts, and you shall be like unto it.
4 And ye shall know, that I have [v]sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant, which I made with Levi, might stand, saith the Lord of hosts.
5 My [w]covenant was with him of life and peace, and I [x]gave him fear, and he feared me, and was afraid before [y]my Name.
6 The Law of [z]truth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquity found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the Priest’s [aa]lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth: for he is the [ab]messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But ye are gone out of the way: ye have caused many to fall by the Law: ye have broken the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you to be despised, and vile before all the people, because ye kept not my ways, but have been partial in the Law.
10 Have we not all one [ac]father? hath not one God made us? why do we transgress everyone against his brother, and break the covenant of [ad]our fathers?
11 Judah hath transgressed, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: for Israel hath defiled the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the [ae]daughter of a strange god.
12 The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this: both the master and the servant out of the Tabernacle of Jacob, and him that [af]offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.
13 And this have ye done again, and [ag]covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with mourning: because the offering is no more regarded, neither received acceptably at your hands.
14 Yet ye say, [ah]Wherein? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast transgressed: yet is she thy [ai]companion, and the wife of thy [aj]covenant.
15 And did not [ak]he make one? yet had he [al]abundance of spirit: and wherefore one? because he sought a godly [am]seed: therefore keep yourselves in your [an]spirit, and let none trespass against the wife of his youth.
16 If thou hatest her, [ao]put her away, saith the Lord God of Israel, yet he covereth [ap]the injury under his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore keep yourselves in your spirit, and transgress not.
17 Ye have [aq]wearied the Lord with your words: yet ye say wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Everyone that doeth [ar]evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Or where is the God of [as]judgment?
3 1 Of the messenger of the Lord, John Baptist, and of Christ’s office.
1 Behold, I will send my [at]messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the [au]Lord whom ye seek, shall speedily come to his Temple: even the [av]messenger of the Covenant, whom ye desire: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
2 But who [aw]may abide the day of his coming? and who shall endure, when he appeareth? for he is like a purging fire, and like fuller’s soap.
3 And he shall sit down to try and fine the silver: he shall even fine the sons of [ax]Levi and purify them as gold and silver, that they may bring offerings unto the Lord in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be acceptable unto the Lord, as in old time and in the years afore.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the soothsayers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that wrongfully keep back the hireling’s wages, and vex the widow, and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord: I change not, and ye sons of Jacob [ay]are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them: [az]return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts: but ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a [ba]man spoil his gods? yet have ye spoiled me: but ye say, Wherein have we spoiled thee? In [bb]tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have spoiled me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven unto you, and pour you out a blessing [bc]without measure.
11 And I will rebuke the [bd]devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine be barren in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a pleasant land, saith the Lord of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout [be]against me, saith the Lord: yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?
14 Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his commandment, and that we walked humbly before the Lord of hosts?
15 Therefore we count the proud blessed: even they that work wickedness, are set up, and they that tempt God, yea, they are [bf]delivered.
16 [bg]Then spake they that feared the Lord, everyone to his neighbor, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a [bh]book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his Name.
17 And they shall be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day [bi]that I shall do this, for a flock, and I will [bj]spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.
4 The day of the Lord before the which Elijah should come.
1 For behold, the day cometh that shall [bk]burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh, shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, and shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name, shall the [bl]sun of righteousness arise, and health shall be under his wings, and ye shall go [bm]forth and grow up as fat calves.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked: for they shall be dust under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
4 [bn]Remember the Law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you [bo]Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and [bp]fearful day of the Lord.
6 And he shall [bq]turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and [br]smite the earth with cursing.
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