2:1And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. 2:2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. 2:3Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it. 2:4And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 2:5My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name. 2:6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 2:7For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts. 2:8But ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 2:9Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have had respect of persons in the law. 2:10Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 2:11Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah which he loveth, and hath married the daughter of a foreign god. 2:12Jehovah will cut off, to the man that doeth this, him that waketh and him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto Jehovah of hosts. 2:13And this again ye do: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, neither receiveth it with good will at your hand. 2:14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 2:15And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 2:16For I hate putting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him that covereth his garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. 2:17Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of justice?
3:1Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. 3:2But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: 3:3and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness. 3:4Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. 3:6For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 3:7From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return? 3:8Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 3:9Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation. 3:10Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 3:11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. 3:12And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts. 3:13Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee? 3:14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? 3:15And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape. 3:16Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name. 3:17And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 3:18Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
4:1For,
behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and
all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall
burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither
root nor branch. 4:2But
unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing
in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.
4:3And
ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles
of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts. 4:4Remember
ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for
all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. 4:5Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of
Jehovah come. 4:6And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.