Malachi 1:1-8 ▼

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

2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you ask, “How have you loved us? ” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? ” This is the LORD’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob,

3 but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

4 Though Edom says, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of Armies says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country and the people the LORD has cursed forever.

5 Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’

6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the LORD of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.” Yet you ask, “How have we despised your name? ”

7 “By presenting defiled food on my altar.” “How have we defiled you? ” you ask. When you say, “The LORD’s table is contemptible.”

8 “When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor? ” asks the LORD of Armies.