Malahija 1

1An oracle. The message of the Lordto Israel through Malachi. 2“I have loved you,” says the . “LordBut you ask, ‘How have you shown love to us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” explains the Lordof hosts, “yet I loved Jacob, 3but hated Esau, and made his mountains a desolation, and transformed his ancestral land into a wilderness. 4When Edom says, ‘We are beaten down, but we will return and rebuild the ruined places’” the Lordof hosts says, “They may build, but I will throw down. They will be called, ‘The border land of wickedness,’ the people against whom the Lordis angry forever. 5Your own eyes will see this, and you will say, ‘the ’s greatness reaches Lordbeyond the border of Israel.’” 6“A son honors his father and servant their master. If I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the one who fears me? So says the Lordto you, priests who despise my name. You ask, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7You offer on my altar bread that is polluted. You ask, ‘How have we polluted it?’ Because you say, ‘The table of the Lordis contemptible.’ 8When you offer the blind animal for sacrifice, ‘It doesn’t matter!’ And when you offer the lame and the sick ‘It doesn’t matter!’ Give an animal like that to your governor; will he be pleased with it? Will he receive you favorably?” says the Lordof hosts. 9Now, plead for the favor of God with such an offering, so that he may be gracious to us. “Would I receive any of you favorably?” says the Lordof hosts. 10“If only one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you could not kindle useless fires on my altar! I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lordof hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hand. 11For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place they offer to my name a pure offering. For my name is great among the nations,” says the Lordof hosts. 12“But you profane me when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is polluted, and its food is contemptible.’ 13You say also, ‘How tired we are of all this!’ and you sniff contemptuously at it. You have brought the blind, the lame and the sick as offerings. Should I accept this from your hand?” says the Lordof hosts.