Malachi 1:1-8 ▼

1 An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

2 I love you, says the LORD; but you say, “How do you love us?”

3 Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?—oracle of the LORD. I loved Jacob, but rejected Esau; I made his mountains a waste, his heritage a desert for jackals.

4 If Edom says, “We have been crushed, but we will rebuild the ruins,” Thus says the LORD of hosts: They indeed may build, but I will tear down, And they shall be called “territory of wickedness,” the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.

5 Your own eyes will see it, and you will say, “Great is the LORD, even beyond the territory of Israel.”

6 A son honors his father, and a servant fears his master; If, then, I am a father, where is the honor due to me? And if I am a master, where is the fear due to me? So says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who disdain my name. But you ask, “How have we disdained your name?”

7 By offering defiled food on my altar! You ask, “How have we defiled it?” By saying that the table of the LORD may be disdained!

8 When you offer a blind animal for sacrifice, is there no wrong in that? When you offer a lame or sick animal, is there no wrong in that? Present it to your governor! Will he be pleased with you—or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.