Malachi 1:1-8 ▼

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

2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was Esau not Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob;

3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”

4 Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; this is what the LORD of armies says: “They may build, but I will tear down; and people will call them the territory of wickedness, and the people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.”

5 And your eyes will see this, and you will say, “The LORD be exalted beyond the border of Israel!”

6 “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of armies to you, the priests who despise My name! But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

7 You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’

8 And when you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not evil? Or when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not evil? So offer it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you, or would he receive you kindly?” says the LORD of armies.