| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | English Standard Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1“And now, O priests, this command is for you. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.” |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts! |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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