Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Priests Offer Unacceptable Sacrifices to the Lord

⁶ “This is what the Lord of Armies says: A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master. So if I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my respect? You priests despise my name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we despised your name?’

⁷ “You offer contaminated food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘Then how have we contaminated you?’

“When you say that the Lord’s table may be despised. ⁸ When you bring a blind animal to sacrifice, isn’t that wrong? When you bring a lame or a sick animal, isn’t that wrong? Try offering it to your governor. Would he accept it from you? Would he welcome you?” asks the Lord of Armies.

⁹ “Now try asking God to be kind to you. This is what you are doing! Will he welcome you?” asks the Lord of Armies.

¹⁰ “I wish one of you would shut the doors ⌞to my house⌟ so that you could not light fires on my altar for no reason. I’m not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Armies, “and I won’t accept your offerings.

¹¹ “From the nations where the sun rises to the nations where the sun sets, my name will be great. Incense and pure offerings will be offered everywhere in my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Armies. ¹² “But you dishonor it when you say that the Lord’s table may be contaminated and that its food may be despised.

¹³ “You say, ‘Oh what a nuisance it is,’ and you sniff at it in disgust,” says the Lord of Armies. “You bring stolen, lame, and sick animals. When you bring such offerings, should I accept them from you?” asks the Lord.

¹⁴ “Cheaters are under a curse. They have male animals in their flocks that they vow to give ⌞as a sacrifice⌟. But they sacrifice second-rate ones to the Lord instead. I am a great king,” says the Lord of Armies. “Among the nations my name is respected.

The Priests Do Not Teach the Lord’s Word Correctly

2 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. ² If you won’t listen and if you won’t consider giving honor to my name,” says the Lord of Armies, “then I’ll send a curse on you, and I’ll curse the blessings you give. Yes, I’ve already cursed them because you don’t carefully consider this.

³ “I’m going to punish your descendants. I’m going to spread excrement on your faces, the excrement from your festival sacrifices. You will be discarded with it. ⁴ Then you will know that I sent you this warning so that my promise ^[a] to Levi will continue,” says the Lord of Armies. ⁵ “I promised Levi life and peace. I gave them to him so that he would respect me. He respected me and stood in awe of my name. ⁶ The teaching that came from his mouth was true. Nothing unjust was found on his lips. He lived with me in peace and honesty and turned many people away from sin.

⁷ “A priest’s lips should preserve knowledge. Then, because he is the messenger for the Lord of Armies, people will seek instruction from his mouth.

⁸ “But you have turned from the ⌞correct⌟ path and caused many to stumble over my teachings. You have corrupted the promise made to Levi,” says the Lord of Armies. ⁹ “So I have made you disgusting, and I have humiliated you in front of all the people, because you have not followed my ways. You have been unfair when ⌞applying⌟ my teachings.”

The Hypocrisy of the Jewish Leaders

¹³ “How horrible it will be for you, experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You don’t enter it yourselves, and you don’t permit others to enter when they try.^[a]

¹⁵ “How horrible it will be for you, experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You cross land and sea to recruit a single follower, and when you do, you make that person twice as fit for hell as you are.

¹⁶ “How horrible it will be for you, you blind guides! You say, ‘To swear an oath by the temple doesn’t mean a thing. But to swear an oath by the gold in the temple means a person must keep his oath.’ ¹⁷ You blind fools! What is more important, the gold or the temple that made the gold holy? ¹⁸ Again you say, ‘To swear an oath by the altar doesn’t mean a thing. But to swear an oath by the gift on the altar means a person must keep his oath.’ ¹⁹ You blind men! What is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? ²⁰ To swear an oath by the altar is to swear by it and by everything on it. ²¹ To swear an oath by the temple is to swear by it and by the one who lives there. ²² And to swear an oath by heaven is to swear by God’s throne and the one who sits on it.

²³ “How horrible it will be for you, experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give ⌞God⌟ one-tenth of your mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the most important things in Moses’ Teachings. You should have done these things without neglecting the others. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain gnats ⌞out of your wine⌟, but you swallow camels.

²⁵ “How horrible it will be for you, experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of cups and dishes. But inside they are full of greed and uncontrolled desires. ²⁶ You blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cups and dishes so that the outside may also be clean.

²⁷ “How horrible it will be for you, experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed graves that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of impurity. ²⁸ So on the outside you look as though you have God’s approval, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.