Malachi
2
- "And now this admonition is for you,
O priests.
- If you do not listen, and if you do not
set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will
send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already
cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.
- "Because of you I will rebuke your
descendants; I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices,
and you will be carried off with it.
- And you will know that I have sent you this
admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the LORD
Almighty.
- "My covenant was with him, a covenant
of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he
revered me and stood in awe of my name.
- True instruction was in his mouth and nothing
false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and
turned many from sin.
- "For the lips of a priest ought to
preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction -- because
he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.
- But you have turned from the way and by
your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant
with Levi," says the LORD Almighty.
- "So I have caused you to be despised
and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways
but have shown partiality in matters of the law."
- Have we not all one Father? Did not one
God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith
with one another ?
- Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing
has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary
the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
- As for the man who does this, whoever he
may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob -- even though he
brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.
- Another thing you do: You flood the LORD'S
altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to
your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.
- You ask, "Why?" It is because
the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth,
because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife
of your marriage covenant.
- Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh
and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring.
So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of
your youth.
- "I hate divorce," says the LORD
God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as
well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself
in your spirit, and do not break faith.
- You have wearied the LORD with your words.
"How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying, "All who do
evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" or
"Where is the God of justice ?"
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