Denunciation of Israel and the Priests

Malachi 1–2 (selections)

Late 6th–4th Century BCE

Chapter 1

¹A pronouncement: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

²I have shown you love, said the Lord. But you ask, “How have You shown us love?” After all—declares the Lord—Esau is Jacob’s brother; yet I have accepted Jacob ³and have rejected Esau. I have made his hills a desolation, his territory a home for beasts of the desert. ⁴If Edom thinks, “Though crushed, we can build the ruins again,” thus said the Lord of Hosts: They may build, but I will tear down. And so they shall be known as the region of wickedness, the people damned forever of the Lord. ⁵Your eyes shall behold it, and you shall declare, “Great is the Lord beyond the borders of Israel!”

⁶A son should honor his father, and a slave his master. Now if I am a father, where is the honor due Me? And if I am a master, where is the reverence due Me?—said the Lord of Hosts to you, O priests who scorn My name. But you ask, “How have we scorned Your name?” ⁷You offer defiled food on My altar. [ . . . ]

¹¹For from where the sun rises to where it sets, My name is honored among the nations, and everywhere incense and pure oblation are offered to My name; for My name is honored among the nations—said the Lord of Hosts. ¹²But you profane it [ . . . ]. ¹³[ . . . ] and you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; and you offer such as an oblation. Will I accept it from you?—said the Lord.

Chapter 2

¹And now, O priests, this charge is for you: [ . . . ]

⁴Know, then, that I have sent this charge to you that My covenant with Levi may endure—said the Lord of Hosts. ⁵I had with him a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave to him, and of reverence, which he showed Me. For he stood in awe of My name.

⁶Proper rulings were in his mouth,

And nothing perverse was on his lips;

He served Me with complete loyalty

And held the many back from iniquity.

⁷For the lips of a priest guard knowledge,

And men seek rulings from his mouth;

For he is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

⁸But you have turned away from that course: You have made the many stumble through your rulings;^a you have corrupted the covenant of the Levites—said the Lord of Hosts. ⁹And I, in turn, have made you despicable and vile in the eyes of all the people, because you disregard My ways and show partiality in your rulings.

¹⁰Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we break faith with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? ¹¹Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned what is holy to the Lord—what He desires—and espoused daughters of alien gods. ¹²May the Lord leave to him who does this no descendants dwelling in the tents of Jacob and presenting offerings to the Lord of Hosts. ¹³And this you do as well: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping, and moaning, so that He refuses to regard the oblation any more and to accept what you offer. ¹⁴But you ask, “Because of what?” Because the Lord is a witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have broken faith, though she is your partner and covenanted spouse. ¹⁵Did not the One make [all,] so that all remaining life-breath is His? And what does that One seek but godly folk? So be careful of your life-breath, and let no one break faith with the wife of his youth. ¹⁶For I detest divorce—said the Lord, the God of Israel—and covering oneself with lawlessness as with a garment—said the Lord of Hosts. So be careful of your life-breath and do not act treacherously.

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