Malachi
Bible, King James Version
Malachi
Mal.1
[
1] The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by
Malachi.
[
2] 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,
[
3] And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
[
4] 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.
[
5] And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say,
The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
[
6] 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?
[
7] 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.
[
8] 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.
[
9] 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.
[
10] 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.
[
11] 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.
[
12] 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.
[
13] 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.
[
14] 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.
Mal.2
[
1] And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for
you.
[
2] 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.
[
3] 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.
[
4] And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of
hosts.
[
5] 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.
[
6] 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.
[
7] 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.
[
8] 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.
[
9] 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.
[
10] 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?
[
11] 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.
[
12] 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.
[
13] 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.
[
14] 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.
[
15] 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.
[
16] 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.
[
17] 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?
Mal.3
[
1] Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to this
temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall
come, saith the LORD of hosts.
[
2] 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:
[
3] And he shall sit as a refiner and purifer
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.
[
4] Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be
pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former
years.
[
5] 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.
[
6] For I am the LORD, I change
not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
[
7] 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?
[
8] Will a man rob God? Yet ye have
robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings.
[
9] Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even
this whole nation.
[
10] 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.
[
11] 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.
[
12] And all nations shall call you
blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of
hosts.
[
13] Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet
ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
[
14] 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?
[
15] And
now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea,
they that tempt God are even delivered.
[
16] 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.
[
17] 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.
[
18] Then shall ye return,
and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God
and him that serveth him not.
Mal.4
[
1] 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.
[
2] 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.
[
3] 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.
[
4] Remember ye the law of
Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the
statutes and judgments.
[
5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
[
6] 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.
