Malachi 2
1 ‘Now, you priests, this command is for you.
And now, O ye Priests, this commandement is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you do not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Then I will lay a curse on you. I will turn your blessings into curses. Indeed I have already done so, because you pay no attention.
If yee will not heare it, nor consider it in your heart, to giue glory vnto my Name, sayth the Lord of hostes, I will euen sende a curse vpon you, and will curse your blessings: yea, I haue cursed them alreadie, because yee doe not consider it in your heart.
3 I will punish your descendants! I will spread offal upon your faces, even the offal of your pilgrim feasts, you will be discarded.
Behold, I wil corrupt your seede, and cast dongue vpon your faces, euen the dongue of your solemne feastes, and you shall be like vnto it.
4 You will then know that I have sent this command to you, so that my covenant with Levi may be preserved,’ says the Lord of hosts.
And yee shall know, that I haue sent this commandement vnto you, that my couenant, which I made with Leui, might stand, sayeth the Lord of hostes.
5 ‘My covenant with him was to give life and peace. I gave them to him so that he might revere me. He revered me, and stood in awe of my name.
My couenant was with him of life and peace, and I gaue him feare, and he feared mee, and was afraid before my Name.
6 The true instruction was in his mouth, and injustice was not found in his lips; He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.
The lawe of trueth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquitie founde in his lippes: hee walked with me in peace and equitie, and did turne many away from iniquitie.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
For the Priestes lippes shoulde preserue knowledge, and they shoulde seeke the Lawe at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hostes.
8 ‘But you have turned aside from that way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,’ says the Lord of hosts.
But yee are gone out of the way: yee haue caused many to fall by the Lawe: yee haue broken the couenant of Leui, sayeth the Lord of hostes.
9 ‘So I have I made you contemptible and degraded before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, and have had no respect for me in imparting the law.’
Therefore haue I also made you to be despised, and vile before all the people, because yee kept not my wayes, but haue beene partiall in the Lawe.
10 Don’t we have all one father? Didn’t one God created us? Why do we deal faithlessly with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
Haue we not all one father? hath not one God made vs? why doe we transgresse euery one against his brother, and breake the couenant of our fathers?
11 Judah is treacherous, and abominations are committed in Israel and in Jerusalem because Judah has profaned the holy things loved by the Lord, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
Iudah hath transgressed, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Ierusalem: for Iudah hath defiled the holinesse of the Lord, which hee loued, and hath maried the daughter of a strange God.
12 May the Lord banish from the community of Jacob anyone who does this, anyone awaking, testifying, and making an offering to the Lord of hosts.
The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this: both the master and the seruaunt out of the Tabernacle of Iaacob, and him that offereth an offering vnto the Lord of hostes.
13 And you also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, because he doesn’t accept the offering any more, doesn’t accept it from your hand.
And this haue ye done againe, and couered the altar of the Lord with teares, with weeping and with mourning: because the offering is no more regarded, neither receiued acceptably at your handes.
14 Yet you ask, ‘Why?’ Because the Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young. You have been unfaithful to her, even though she is your companion, and your legal wife.
Yet yee say, Wherein? Because the Lord hath beene witnesse betweene thee and the wife of thy youth, against whome thou hast transgressed: yet is shee thy companion, and the wife of thy couenant.
15 Did not the one God make everyone, so that all both flesh and spirit is his? And what does that one God seek but godly children? Therefore keep watch over your spirit, and let none of you deal faithlessly with the wife of your youth.
And did not hee make one? yet had hee abundance of spirit: and wherefore one? because he sought a godly seede: therefore keepe your selues in your spirit, and let none trespasse against the wife of his youth.
16 ‘A man who divorces or puts away his wife,’ says Lord, the God of Israel, ‘overwhelms her with cruelty.’ The Lord of hosts says: ‘Keep watch over your spirit, do not be unfaithful.’
If thou hatest her, put her away, sayeth the Lord God of Israel, yet he couereth the iniurie vnder his garment, saieth the Lord of hosts: therefore keepe your selues in your spirite, and transgresse not.
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. You ask, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.’ Or, ‘Where is the God of justice?’
Yee haue wearied the Lord with your woordes: yet yee say, Wherein haue we wearied him? When ye say, Euery one that doeth euill, is good in the sight of the Lord, and he deliteth in them. Or where is the God of iudgement?
