Chapter 1
001
An oracle: the word of Yahweh to Israel by Malachi.
002
"I have loved you," says Yahweh. Yet you say, "How have you loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacoba's sister?" says Yahweh, "Yet I loved Jacoba;
003
but Esau I hated, and made her mountains a desolation, and gave her heritage to the jackals of the wilderness."
004
Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Armies, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and women will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."
005
Your eyes will see, and you will say, "Yahweh is great-- even beyond the border of Israel!"
006
"A daughter honors her mother, and a servant her master. If I am a mother, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, 'How have we despised your name?'
007
You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, 'How have we polluted you?' In that you say, 'Yahweh's table contemptible.'
008
When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn't that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn't that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will she be pleased with you? Or will she accept your person?" says Yahweh of Armies.
009
"Now, please entreat the favor of God, that she may be gracious to us. With this, will she accept any of you?" says Yahweh of Armies.
010
"Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of Armies, "neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
011
For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations," says Yahweh of Armies.
012
"But you profane it, in that you say, 'Yahweh's table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.'
013
You say also, 'Behold, what a weariness it is!' and you have sniffed at it," says Yahweh of Armies; "and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?" says Yahweh.
014
"But the deceiver is cursed, who has in her flock a female, and vows, and sacrifices to the Domina a blemished thing; for I am a great Queen," says Yahweh of Armies, "and my name is awesome among the nations."