1

1 This is Jehovah’s Word, a divine revelation to Israel through His Messenger, Malachi:

2 »I have loved you,« said Jehovah. You replied: »How have you loved us?« »Was Esau Jacob's brother?« Responded Jehovah: »Yet I loved Jacob.

3 »And yet I hated Esau and his descendants. I devastated Esau's hill country and abandoned his inheritance to the desert jackals.«

4 Esau's descendants, the Edomites, say: »Our towns have been destroyed, but we will rebuild them.« Thus Jehovah will reply: »Let them rebuild. I will tear them down again. People will call them the evil country. They are the nation with whom Jehovah has a long lasting anger.

5 The people of Israel will see this with their own eyes. They will say: Jehovah is mighty even outside the land of Israel!«

6 Jehovah of Hosts declares to the priests: »Children honor their parents and servants honor their masters. I am your father. Why do you not honor me? I am your master. Why do you not respect me? You despise me, and yet you ask: How have we despised you?«

7 »This is how you despise me. You offer worthless food on my altar. Then you ask: ‘How have we failed to respect you?’ I tell you it is by showing contempt for my altar.

8 »You bring blind, sick and lame animals to sacrifice to me. Do you think there is nothing wrong with that? Try giving an animal like that to the governor! Would he be pleased with you or grant you any favors?

9 »Try asking God to show you favor. He will not answer your prayer! It will be your fault,« Jehovah the Almighty declares.

10 Jehovah of Hosts continues: »Is there one among you who will shut the Temple doors to prevent lighting a useless fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you! I will not accept the offerings you bring me.

11 »Where ever the sun rises and sets my name will be great among the people of the nations. Incense will be offered to my name everywhere. It will be a pure offering! For my name will be great among the nations,« said Jehovah of Hosts.

12 »You profane it by saying: ‘The table of Jehovah is polluted and the fruit and food on it is contemptible.’

13 »And you say: ‘We are tired of all this!’ You turn up your nose at me. You offer the lame and the sick and even stolen animals,« said Jehovah. »Do you think I will accept that from you?

14 »The cheater who sacrifices a worthless animal to me will be cursed. For he has in his flock a good animal that he promised to give me! I am a great King,« Jehovah of Hosts declares. »People of all nations will respect my name!«

2

1 Jehovah God the Almighty speaks to the priests: »This command is for you.

2 »You must honor me by your actions. If you will not listen to what I say, and give glory and honor to my name, I will bring a curse on you. I will put a curse on the things you receive for your support. I have already put a curse on you. Your blessings are cursed already because you do not take my command seriously.

3 »I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice! You will be taken away with the dung heap of your feasts.

4 »You will know I sent this commandment to you! This way my covenant with Levi will continue,« said Jehovah of Hosts.

5 »My covenant was with him Levi . It was of life and peace. I gave them to him that he might reverence me. He respected me and stood in awe of my name.

6 »The law of truth was in his mouth. Unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He turned many away from iniquity.

7 »The priests should teach the true knowledge of God. They are the messengers of Jehovah of Hosts. Therefore the people should learn my will the law from them.

8 »You priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have corrupted the covenant I made with Levi you .

9 »I caused you to be despised and low before all the people. You are contemptible and do not keep my ways. You show partiality when applying the law.«

10 »Do we all have one father? Did one God create us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers?

11 »The people of Judah have done wrong. They deal treacherously and committed an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem. Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

12 »Jehovah will remove from the community of Israel those who did this. They will never again participate in the national offerings to Jehovah of Hosts.

13 »Another thing you do is drown Jehovah’s altar with tears, weeping and wailing. This is because he no longer accepts the offerings you bring him.

14 »You ask: Why do you not accept our offerings? It is because Jehovah is a witness between you and the wife of your youth. The one to whom you have been unfaithful! She is your companion, the wife of your marriage vows.

15 »Did God make you one? Your flesh and spirit belong to him. What does God look for but godly descendants? Do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

16 ‘»I hate divorce and he who covers his garment with violence,’ said Jehovah, the God of Israel. Jehovah of Hosts declares: ‘Guard yourselves and do not deal treacherously.’«

17 »You have made Jehovah weary with your words. You ask: ‘How have we wearied him?’ You say: ‘Every one that does evil is good in Jehovah’s sight.’ You also say: ‘He delights in them.’ Then you ask: ‘where is the God of justice?« ’

3

1 »Behold, I send my messenger! He will prepare the way before me. Seek Jehovah! He will suddenly come to his Temple along with the messenger of the covenant. He is one you desire, behold, he comes,« said Jehovah of Hosts.

2 »Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire and like laundry soap the lye of laundrymen .

3 »He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer to Jehovah offerings in righteousness.

4 »The offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Jehovah like it was in the old days, in ancient years.

5 »I will approach you people for judgment! I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers and those acting fraudulently with the wages of the worker, the widow and the fatherless. I will be a speedy witness against those who swear falsely and take advantage of the stranger, and do not show me reverence,« said Jehovah of Hosts.

6 »I am Jehovah. I have not changed! You are the sons of Jacob. You have not yet been destroyed!

7 »Like your fathers before you, you have turned away from my laws and have not obeyed them. Return to me and I will return to you,« said Jehovah of Hosts. »But you ask, ‘how will we return to you?’

8 »I ask you: ‘will you rob and defraud God? Of course not, yet you are robbing and defrauding me!’ ‘How have we robbed and defrauded?’ You ask. ‘In the matter of tithes and offerings.’

9 »A curse is on all of you because the whole nation is cheating me.

10 »Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Test me, said Jehovah of Hosts, and see if I will open the windows of heaven and pour out showers of blessing upon you until there is no more want.

11 »I will not let insects destroy your crops. Your grapevines will produce abundantly.

12 »All the nations will pronounce you happy because your land will be a good place to live.

13 »You have said terrible things about me,« said Jehovah of Hosts. »Yet you ask: ‘What have we said about you?’«

14 »You have said: ‘There is no value to serve God. What is the use of doing what he says or of trying to show Jehovah of Hosts that we are sorry for what we have done?’

15 »We call arrogant people happy. Evil people test God’s patience with their wicked deeds. They not only get away with it, they also prosper.«

16 Those who respected Jehovah spoke to one another, and Jehovah listened to what they had to say. In his presence a memorial record was written down in a book listing those who reverence Jehovah and respect esteem regard his name.

17 »They will be my people,« said Jehovah of Hosts. »On the day when I act, they will be mine my special treasure my jewels . I will show them compassion just as parents show compassion to the children who serve them.

18 »Once again my people will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves God and the one who does not.«

4

1 Jehovah of Hosts proclaims: »The day is coming when all arrogant and evil people will burn like stubble. On that day they will burn up and there will be nothing left of them, either root or bough.

2 »The sun of righteousness with it’s healing will shine on you who respect my name and obey me. You will be free and paw the ground like fat calves.«

3 »When I act you will tread down the wicked. They will be like dust under your feet,« Jehovah of Hosts said.

4 »You should remember the Law of Moses my servant. I commanded the statutes and ordinances regulations and judgments to him at Horeb for all Israel.

5 »Behold! I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible Day of Jehovah comes.

6 »He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers and bring them together again before I come and strike the earth with destruction a curse