Malachi

2 Now therefore for you is this charge, O ye priests:—

2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my Name, Saith Yahweh of hosts, then will I send among you the curse and will curse your blessings,—and indeed I have cursed them, because ye are not at all laying it to heart.

3 Behold me! threatening on your account the seed, and I will scatter refuse upon your faces, the refuse of your festivals,—and one shall carry you away unto it;

4 So shall ye know that I sent unto you this charge,—as being my covenant with Levi, Saith Yahweh of hosts.

5 My covenant was with him, Life and Well-being, So I gave them to him—[I] as One to be revered—And he did revere me,—And before my Name dismayed was he.

6 The deliverance of truth was in his mouth, And perverseness was not found in his lips,—In well-doing and in uprightness walked he with me, And multitudes did he turn from iniquity.

7 For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, And a deliverance should men seek at his mouth,—For the messenger of Yahweh of hosts he is.

8 But ye have departed out of the way, Ye have caused multitudes to stumble at the deliverance,—Ye have violated the covenant of Levi, Saith Yahweh of hosts.

9 Therefore I also will suffer you to be despised and of no account unto all the people,—In proportion as none of you have been keeping my ways, But have had respect to persons in giving your deliverance.

10 Is there not one Father to us all? Did not one God create us? Wherefore should we deal treacherously one with another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, And an abomination hath been wrought in Israel and in Jerusalem,—For Judah had profaned the holy place of Yahweh which he had loved, and hath taken to himself the daughter of a foreign God.

12 May Yahweh cut off from the man that doeth it—him that crieth out and him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob,—Him also that bringeth near a present to Yahweh of hosts.

13 And this a second time will ye do, covering with tears the altar of Yahweh, weeping and making outcry,—because he will not again turn unto the gift, and receive [it] with acceptance at your hands?

14 Yet ye say, For what cause? Because Yahweh hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth with whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she was thy consort and thy covenant wife.

15 Now was it not One [who] made [you] who had the residue of the spirit? What then of that One? He was seeking a godly seed. Therefore should ye take heed to your spirit, and with the wife of thy youth do not thou deal treacherously.

16 For he hateth Divorce, Saith Yahweh, God of Israel, Him also who covereth with violence his own clothing, Saith Yahweh of hosts,—Therefore should ye take heed to your spirit, and not deal treacherously.

17 Ye have wearied Yahweh with your words, and yet ye say, Wherein have we been wearisome? When ye have said, Everyone who doeth wrong is right in the eyes of Yahweh and in them he hath taken delight, or, Where is the God of justice?