Malachi 2

A Warning to the Priests

1“Listen, you priests—this command is for you! 2Listen to me and make up your minds to honor my name,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “or I will bring a terrible curse against you. I will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you have not taken my warning to heart. 3I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile. 4Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning so that my covenant with the Levites can continue,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

5“The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin.

7“The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 8But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 9“So I have made you despised and humiliated in the eyes of all the people. For you have not obeyed me but have shown favoritism in the way you carry out my instructions.”

A Call to Faithfulness

10Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?

11Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols. 12May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel#2:12 Hebrew from the tents of Jacob. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation. every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

13Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure. 14You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.

15Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his.#2:15 Or Didn’t the one Lord make us and preserve our life and breath? or Didn’t the one Lord make her, both flesh and spirit? The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. 16“For I hate divorce!”#2:16a Hebrew For he hates divorcing. says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,#2:16b Hebrew to cover one’s garment with violence.” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”

17You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

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Malachi 2: NLT

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Malachi 2

Corrupt Priests

1“And now, O #Mal. 1:6priests, this commandment is for you.

2#(Lev. 26:14, 15; Deut. 28:15)If you will not hear,

And if you will not take it to heart,

To give glory to My name,”

Says the Lord of hosts,

“I will send a curse upon you,

And I will curse your blessings.

Yes, I have cursed them #Mal. 3:9already,

Because you do not take it to heart.

3“Behold, I will rebuke your descendants

And spread #Ex. 29:14refuse on your faces,

The refuse of your solemn feasts;

And one will #1 Kin. 14:10take you away with it.

4Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you,

That My covenant with Levi may continue,”

Says the Lord of hosts.

5“My#Num. 25:12; Ezek. 34:25 covenant was with him, one of life and peace,

And I gave them to him #Deut. 33:9that he might fear Me;

So he feared Me

And was reverent before My name.

6#Deut. 33:10The law of truth was in his mouth,

And injustice was not found on his lips.

He walked with Me in peace and equity,

And #Jer. 23:22; (James 5:20)turned many away from iniquity.

7“For#Num. 27:21; Deut. 17:8–11; Jer. 18:18 the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,

And people should seek the law from his mouth;

#(Gal. 4:14)For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

8But you have departed from the way;

You #Jer. 18:15have caused many to stumble at the law.

#Num. 25:12, 13; Neh. 13:29; Ezek. 44:10You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,”

Says the Lord of hosts.

9“Therefore #1 Sam. 2:30I also have made you contemptible and base

Before all the people,

Because you have not kept My ways

But have shown #Deut. 1:17; Mic. 3:11; 1 Tim. 5:21partiality in the law.”

Treachery of Infidelity

10#Jer. 31:9; 1 Cor. 8:6; (Eph. 4:6)Have we not all one Father?

#Job 31:15Has not one God created us?

Why do we deal treacherously with one another

By profaning the covenant of the fathers?

11Judah has dealt treacherously,

And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,

For Judah has #Ezra 9:1, 2; Neh. 13:23profaned

The Lord’s holy institution which He loves:

He has married the daughter of a foreign god.

12May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob

The man who does this, being awake and aware,

Yet #Neh. 13:29who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

13And this is the second thing you do:

You cover the altar of the Lord with tears,

With weeping and crying;

So He does not regard the offering anymore,

Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.

14Yet you say, “For what reason?”

Because the Lord has been witness

Between you and #Prov. 5:18; Jer. 9:2; Mal. 3:5the wife of your youth,

With whom you have dealt treacherously;

#Prov. 2:17Yet she is your companion

And your wife by covenant.

15But #Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4, 5did He not make them one,

Having a remnant of the Spirit?

And why one?

He seeks #Ezra 9:2; (1 Cor. 7:14)godly offspring.

Therefore take heed to your spirit,

And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

16“For #Deut. 24:1; (Matt. 5:31; 19:6–8)the Lord God of Israel says

That He hates divorce,

For it covers one’s garment with violence,”

Says the Lord of hosts.

“Therefore take heed to your spirit,

That you do not deal treacherously.”

17#Is. 43:22, 24You have wearied the Lord with your words;

Yet you say,

“In what way have we wearied Him?”

In that you say,

#Is. 5:20; Zeph. 1:12“Everyone who does evil

Is good in the sight of the Lord,

And He delights in them,”

Or, “Where is the God of justice?”

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