[Sidenote: Mal. 2:1-4]
And now, O ye priests, this command is for you.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart,
To give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of hosts,
Then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings;
Behold, I will cut off your arm,
And will spread offal upon your faces, even the offal of your feasts,
And ye shall know that I have sent this command to you,
That my covenant with Levi may be preserved, saith Jehovah of hosts.
[Sidenote: Mal. 2:15-7]
My covenant with him was to give life and peace;
And I gave them to him that he might revere me;
And he revered me, and stood in awe of my name.
The true instruction was in his mouth,
And unrighteousness was not found in his lips;
He walked with me in peace and uprightness,
And turned many away from iniquity.
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge,
And men should seek the law at his mouth;
For he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.
[Sidenote: Mal. 2:8, 9]
But ye are turned aside out of the way;
Ye have caused many to stumble in the law;
Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
Saith Jehovah of hosts.
Therefore have I also made you contemptible,
And base before all the people,
According as ye have not kept my ways,
And have had no respect for me in imparting the law.
[Sidenote: Mal. 2:10, 13, 14]
Have we not all one father?
Hath not one God created us?
Why do we deal faithlessly with one another,
Profaning the covenant of our fathers?
And this ye do also:
Ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears,
So that he regardeth not the offering any more,
Neither receiveth it acceptably from your hand.
Yet ye say, Why?
Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
Against whom thou hast dealt faithlessly,
Though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
[Sidenote: Mal. 2:15, 16]
Therefore give heed to your spirit,
And let none deal faithlessly with the wife of his youth,
For I hate putting away,
Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel,
And him who covers his garment with violence;
Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not faithlessly.
[Sidenote: Mal. 2:17]
Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words.
Yet ye say, How have we wearied him?
In that ye say, Everyone that doeth evil
Is good in the sight of Jehovah,
And he delighteth in them;
Or where is the God of justice?
[Sidenote: Mal. 3:1-4]
Behold, I am about to send my messenger,
And he shall prepare the way before me;
And the Lord, whom ye seek,
Will suddenly come to his temple;
But who can endure the day of his coming?
And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire,
And like fullers' lyes;
And he will sit as a refiner and purifier,
And he will purify the sons of Levi,
And refine them as gold and silver;
And they shall offer offerings in righteousness.
Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to Jehovah,
As in the days of old, and as in former years.
[Sidenote: Mal. 3:5, 6]
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 those who sware to that which is false,
And against those who oppress the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless,
Who turn aside the resident alien from his right,
And fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
For I, Jehovah, change not;
But ye have not ceased to be sons of Jacob.
[Sidenote: Mal. 3:7-9]
From the days of thy fathers ye have turned aside from my statutes, and ye
have not kept them.
Turn to me and I will turn to you, saith Jehovah.
But ye say, 'Wherein shall we turn?'
Will a man rob God? Yet ye robbed me.
But ye say, 'Wherein have we robbed thee?' In tithes and gifts.
Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye rob me.
[Sidenote: Mal. 3:10-12]
Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house,
That there may be provision in mine house; and test me thereby,
If I will not open to you the windows of heaven,
And pour you out a blessing, until there is more than enough.
I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer that he destroy not the fruit of
the ground,
Neither shall the vine fail to ripen its fruit in the field,
And all nations shall call you happy,
For ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.