A Warning to the Priests

1And now O ye priestes this comaundement is for you. 2If ye wyl not heare it nor regard it, to geue the glory to my name, saith the Lorde of hoastes, I wyll sende a curse vpon you, and wyll curse your blessinges, yea I haue cursed them alredie, because ye do not consider it in your heart. 3Beholde, I wyll corrupt your seede, and cast doung on your faces, euen the doung of your solempne feastes, & you shalbe like vnto it. 4And you shall know that I haue sent this comaundement vnto you, that my couenaunt which I haue made with Leui might stand, saith the Lorde of hoastes. 5My couenaunt was with him, of lyfe and peace, and I gaue them him for the feare wherwith he feared me and was afrayde before my name. 6The lawe of trueth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquitie found in his lippes, he walked with me in peace and in equitie, and he turned many from their iniquitie. 7For the priestes lippes shall kepe knowledge, and they shall seeke the lawe at his mouth: because he is the messenger of the Lorde of hoastes. 8But ye haue gone out of the way, ye haue caused many to fall by the lawe: ye haue corrupted the couenaunt of Leui, saith the Lorde of hoastes. 9Therefore haue I also made you despised and vyle before all the people, because you kept not my wayes, but haue ben parciall in the lawe.

Judah’s Unfaithfulness

10Haue we not all one father? hath not God made vs al? why then is euery one deceaued of his brother, to violate the couenaunt of our fathers? 11Iuda hath offended, & abhomination is committed in Israel and in Hierusalem? for Iuda hath defiled the holynesse of the Lorde which he loued, and hath maried the daughter of a straunge God. 12The Lorde wyll destroy the man that doth this, both the rayser vp and the aunswerer out of the tabernacle of Iacob, and him that offereth an offering vnto the Lorde of hoastes.

13And this againe haue ye done, in couering the aulter of the Lorde with teares, with weeping and mourning, and therfore there is no more respect to the offring, neither acceptable receauing of it at your handes. 14Yet ye say, wherin? Because the Lord hath ben witnesse betweene thee and thy wyfe of thy youth, against whom thou hast transgressed, yet is she thyne owne companion, and the wyfe of thy couenaunt. 15And did not he make one? yet had he aboundaunce of spiritie: And wherfore one? Because he sought a godly seede: therefore kepe your selues in your spirite, and let none transgresse against the wyfe of his youth. 16If thou hatest her, put her away, saith the lorde God of Israel: yet he couereth the iniurie vnder his garment, saith the Lorde of hoastes, and be ye kept in your spirite, and transgresse not.

17Ye haue weeryed the Lord with your wordes, and you haue sayde, Wherein haue we weeried him? Whylest you say, Euery one that doth euil, is good in the sight of the Lorde, and he is pleased in them: or where is the God of iudgement?