1:1 The burden of the Word of Yehovah to Yisrael by the hand of Malachi1:
1:2 I have loved you, says Yehovah. But you say, In what way have You loved us? Was not Esau the brother to Ya'akov? Yet Yehovah declares, I loved Ya'akov,
1:3 and I have hated Esau and have made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness.
1:4 If Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the ruined places; so says Yehovah of Hosts: They shall build, but I will tear down. And they shall call them the region of wickedness, and the people whom Yehovah is enraged with until forever.
1:5 And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, Yehovah will be magnified beyond the border of Yisrael.
1:6 A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says Yehovah of Hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, In what have we despised Your name?2
1:7 You are offering defiled food on My altar, and you say, In what have we defiled You? It is in your saying, The table of Yehovah, it is to be despised.
1:8 And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you or lift up your face? says Yehovah of Hosts.3
1:9 And now entreat the face of Elohim, that He favor us. This has been by your hands; will He lift up your faces? says Yehovah of Hosts.
1:10 Who is even among you that will shut the doors, and you not kindle fire on My altar in vain? There is no delight to Me in you, says Yehovah of Hosts. I will not accept a food offering from your hand.
1:11 For from the rising of the sun to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations, and everywhere incense shall be offered to My name; and a pure food offering; for My name shall be great among the nations, says Yehovah of Hosts.4
1:12 But you are profaning it when you say, The table of Yehovah, it is polluted; and its fruit, His food is to be despicable.
1:13 And you have said, Look, what weariness! And you have sniffed at it, says Yehovah of Hosts. And you bring the stolen, and the lame, and the sick; and you bring the grain offering. Should I accept it from your hand? says Yehovah.
1:14 But cursed be a deceiver and there is a male in his flock, and he vows it, but he sacrifices a blemished one to Yehovah. For I am a great King, says Yehovah of Hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.5
2:1 And now, O priests, this command is to you.
2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not set it on your heart to give glory to My name, says Yehovah of Hosts, then I will send the curse6 on you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed, I have cursed it, because you are not setting it on your heart.
2:3 Look, I am rebuking your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will lift you up to it.
2:4 And you shall know that I have sent this command to you, to be My covenant with Levi, says Yehovah of Hosts.
2:5 My covenant with him was life and shalom, and I gave them to him for fear; and he feared Me, and he is put in awe before My name.
2:6 The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. In shalom and in uprightness he walked with Me, and he turned many from iniquity.
2:7 For the lips of the priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek the Torah from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yehovah of Hosts.
2:8 But you have turned out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the Torah. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yehovah of Hosts.
2:9 So I have also made you despised and low to all the people, just as you have not kept My ways, but are lifting up faces in the Torah.7
2:10 Is there not one father to us all? Has not one El created us united? Why do we act deceitfully, each man with his brother, to profane the covenant of our fathers?
2:11 Yehudah has dealt treacherously, and has done an abomination in Yisrael and in Yerushalayim; for Yehudah has profaned the set apart place of Yehovah, which He loves and has married a daughter of a heathen god.8
2:12 Yehovah will cut off from the tents of Ya'akov the man who does it, he waking and answering, or offering a grain offering to Yehovah of Hosts.
2:13 And this is a second thing you have done: covering the altar of Yehovah with tears, with weeping and groaning; yet not facing toward the grain offering, and taking it with delight from your hand.
2:14 Yet you say, On what cause? Because Yehovah has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously; and she is your companion and your covenant wife.
2:15 And has He not made you one (echad)? Yet the remainder of the ruach is in him. And what of the one? He was seeking a seed of Elohim. Then guard your ruach, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.
2:16 Yehovah, the Elohim of Yisrael, says, He hates divorce, and to cover with violence on his garment, says Yehovah of Hosts.9 Then guard your ruach and do not act treacherously.
2:17 You have wearied Yehovah with your words. Yet you say, In what have we wearied Him? When you say, Every evildoer is good in the eyes of Yehovah, and He delights in them; or, Where is the Elohim of justice?10
3:1 Look, I am sending My messenger, and He will clear the way before Me. And the Master whom you are seeking shall suddenly come to His sanctuary, even the Messenger of the Covenant, in whom You delight. Look, He comes, says Yehovah of Hosts.11
3:2 But who can endure them when they come? And who will be standing when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.12
3:3 And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold and like silver, that they may be presenters of a food offering in righteousness to Yehovah. (Eze 44:6-14)
3:4 Then the food offering of Yehudah and Yerushalayim shall be pleasing to Yehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
3:5 And I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing to a lie; and against those who extort from the hired laborer's pay; and turning away the widow, and the fatherless, and the foreigner, and not fearing Me, says Yehovah of Hosts.
3:6 For I am Yehovah, I do not change. Because of this, you sons of Ya'akov are not destroyed.13
3:7 From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says Yehovah of Hosts. But you say, In what shall we return?
3:8 Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, In what have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering!14 (Gen 28:20-22)
3:9 You are cursed with a curse, for the nation, all of it, you are robbing Me,.
3:10 Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. And test Me now with this, says Yehovah of Hosts, whether I will not open the windows of the heavens for you and pour out a blessing until there is no sufficiency of room to store it.
3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground against you; nor shall your vine miscarry against you in the field, says Yehovah of Hosts.
3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says Yehovah of Hosts.
3:13 Your words have been strong against Me, says Yehovah. Yet you say, What have we spoken against you?
3:14 You have said, It is vanity to serve Elohim. And, What profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked as mourners before Yehovah of Hosts?
3:15 And now we are calling the arrogant blessed. Not only are the doers of wickedness built up, they also test Elohim, and escape.
3:16 Then those fearing Yehovah spoke together, each man to his neighbor. And Yehovah gave attention and heard. And a Scroll of Remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Yehovah, and for those esteeming His name.15
3:17 And they shall be Mine, says Yehovah of Hosts, for the day that I will make up My treasure. And I will pity them as a man has pity on his son who serves him.
3:18 Then you shall return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves Elohim and him who does not serve Him.
4:1 For, look, the day is coming, burning like a fire pot; and all the proud and every doer of wickedness shall be chaff. And the coming day will set them ablaze, says Yehovah of Hosts, which will not leave root or branches to them.
4:2 But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise up, and healing will be on His wings16. And you shall go out and frisk like calves of the stall.
4:3 And you shall tread under the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day which I am preparing, says Yehovah of Hosts. (Eze 28:18)
4:4 Remember the Torah of My servant Mosheh which I commanded him in Horeb for all Yisrael, the statutes and judgments.17
4:5 Look, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yehovah.
4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, that I not come and strike the earth with utter destruction.3