Malachi 1:1-8 ▼

1 A declaration: a message from the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

2 |I've loved you,| says the LORD. |But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' |Was not Esau Jacob's brother?| declares the LORD, |yet I loved Jacob,

3 rejected Esau, turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to desert jackals.

4 Even though Edom may claim, 'We were crushed, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,' this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: |They may rebuild, but I'll demolish. People will call them, 'The Wicked Land,' and, 'The People With Whom the LORD is Forever Angry.'

5 Your own eyes will see this, and you will say, 'Great is the LORD even beyond the borders of Israel!'|

6 |A son honors his father and a servant his master. So if I'm a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my respect?| says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies to you priests who are despising my name. |But you ask, 'How have we despised your name?'

7 By presenting defiled food on my altar. And you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' By saying, 'The Table of the LORD is contemptible.'

8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Offer that to your governor—would he be pleased with you or receive you favorably?| asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.