Malachi 2

1 And now, to you [is] this charge, O priests,

“Now, you priests, this command is for you.

2 If ye hearken not, and if ye lay [it] not to heart, To give honour to My name, said Jehovah of Hosts, I have sent against you the curse, And I have cursed your blessings, Yea, I have also cursed it, Because ye are not laying [it] to heart.

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.

3 Lo, I am pushing away before you the seed, And have scattered dung before your faces, Dung of your festivals, And it hath taken you away with it.

I will punish your descendants! I will spread offal upon your faces, even the offal of your pilgrim feasts, you will be discarded.

4 And ye have known that I have sent unto you this charge, For My covenant being with Levi, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

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.

5 My covenant hath been with him of life and of peace, And I make them to him a fear, and he doth fear Me, And because of My name he hath been affrighted.

“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.

6 The law of truth hath been in his mouth, And perverseness hath not been found in his lips, In peace and in uprightness he walked with Me, And many he brought back from iniquity.

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.

7 For the lips of a priest preserve knowledge, And law they do seek from his mouth, For a messenger of Jehovah of Hosts he [is].

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.

8 And ye, ye have turned from the way, Ye have caused many to stumble in the law, Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

“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.

9 And I also, I have made you despised and low before all the people, Because ye are not keeping My ways, And are accepting persons in the law.

“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.”

10 Have we not all one father? Hath not our God prepared us? Wherefore do we deal treacherously, Each against his brother, To pollute the covenant of our fathers?

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?

11 Dealt treacherously hath Judah, And abomination hath been done in Israel, and in Jerusalem, For polluted hath Judah the holy thing of Jehovah, That He hath loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

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.

12 Cut off doth Jehovah the man who doth it, Tempter and tempted — from the tents of Jacob, Even he who is bringing nigh a present to Jehovah of Hosts.

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.

13 And this a second time ye do, Covering with tears the altar of Jehovah, With weeping and groaning, Because there is no more turning unto the present, Or receiving of a pleasing thing from your hand.

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.

14 And ye have said, 'Wherefore?' Because Jehovah hath testified between thee And the wife of thy youth, That thou hast dealt treacherously against her, And she thy companion, and thy covenant-wife.

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.

15 And He did not make one [only], And He hath the remnant of the Spirit. And what [is] the one [alone]! He is seeking a godly seed. And ye have been watchful over your spirit, And with the wife of thy youth, None doth deal treacherously.

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.

16 For [I] hate sending away, said Jehovah, God of Israel, And He [who] hath covered violence with his clothing, said Jehovah of Hosts, And ye have been watchful over your spirit, And ye do not deal treacherously.

“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.”

17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, And ye have said: 'In what have we wearied Him?' In your saying: 'Every evil-doer [is] good in the eyes of Jehovah, And in them He is delighting,' Or, 'Where [is] the God of judgment?'

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?”