39:001:001 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel
by Malachi.
39:001:002 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast
thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved
Jacob,
39:001:003 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
39:001:004 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return
and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall
build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of
wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for
ever.
39:001:005 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be
magnified from the border of Israel.
39:001:006 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then
I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my
fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name.
And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
39:001:007 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein
have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is
contemptible.
39:001:008 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and
if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy
governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the
LORD of hosts.
39:001:009 And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious
unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons?
saith the LORD of hosts.
39:001:010 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for
nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no
pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an
offering at your hand.
39:001:011 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of
the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name
shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:001:012 But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the
LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
39:001:013 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have
snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was
torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I
accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
39:001:014 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock 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 dreadful among the
heathen.
39:002:001 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
39:002:002 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to
give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a
curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them
already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
39:002:003 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your
faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away
with it.
39:002:004 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you,
that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:002:005 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them
to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my
name.
39:002:006 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found
in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many
away from iniquity.
39:002:007 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should
seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
39:002:008 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to
stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the
LORD of hosts.
39:002:009 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before
all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been
partial in the law.
39:002:010 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why
do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the
covenant of our fathers?
39:002:011 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is
committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the
holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a
strange god.
39:002:012 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and
the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an
offering unto the LORD of hosts.
39:002:013 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD
with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he
regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at
your hand.
39:002:014 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
39:002:015 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the
spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the
wife of his youth.
39:002:016 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of
hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
treacherously.
39:002:017 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein
have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in
the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God
of judgment?
39:003:001 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the
way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold,
he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:003:002 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand
when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers'
soap:
39:003:003 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he
shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
39:003:004 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant
unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
39:003:005 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and
against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in
his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:003:006 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed.
39:003:007 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine
ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
39:003:008 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
39:003:009 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this
whole nation.
39:003:010 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may
be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of
hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
39:003:011 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall
not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her
fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:003:012 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
39:003:013 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye
say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
39:003:014 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it
that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully
before the LORD of hosts?
39:003:015 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work
wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
39:003:016 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another:
and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon
his name.
39:003:017 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day
when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him.
39:003:018 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and
the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
39:004:001 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall 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, that it
shall leave them neither root nor branch.
39:004:002 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness
arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as
calves of the stall.
39:004:003 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the
LORD of hosts.
39:004:004 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded
unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
39:004:005 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
39:004:006 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite
the earth with a curse.