Malachi 2:1-16

“And now, this is my warning for you priests: I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, am speaking to you. If you do not listen and fervently devote your heart to honor my name, then I will send the curse upon you and convert your blessings into curses. Yes, I have already done so since you have not dedicated your heart to honor me. “Behold! I will rebuke your descendants. I will smear feces on your faces—the dung from your festival sacrifices—and you priests will be tossed away with the animal waste. And then you will know that I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, have sent you this commandment so that my covenant with Levi may endure. My covenant with his tribe was a covenant to give them a full, peaceful life. All this I gave to him so that he would revere me, and indeed, he honored me and stood in awe of my name. He gave the people solid instruction and spoke nothing false. He walked with me in peace and integrity and turned many from evil. “Listen, you priests, descendants of Levi. Your lips should be a gateway to sacred truths when people come to you for instruction because you are the messengers of YAHWEH, who rules over all. But you have turned from my path, and your teachings have caused many to stumble. You have corrupted the covenant with Levi. So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people. For you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law. This is YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, speaking to you.” Have we not all one Father, the one God who created us? So why do we cheat one another and violate the covenant that God made with our ancestors? The people of Judah have been unfaithful. A horrible atrocity has been committed throughout the land and even in Jerusalem. They have married foreign women who worship their strange gods and in this way have defiled YAHWEH’s temple, which he loves. May YAHWEH punish the one who has done such a despicable thing, whoever he may be, even though he brings offerings to the Lord Almighty. May YAHWEH banish his entire family from the community of Israel! Another thing you do: You drown YAHWEH’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer values your offerings or accepts with pleasure what you bring him. “Why not?” you ask. It is because you promised before YAHWEH to be faithful to the wife you chose in your youth. She is your partner, and you are bound to her by covenant, yet you have betrayed her. Has God not made them one with a shared Spirit in their union? And what does he desire but godly children from your union? So guard your spirit and do not be disloyal to the wife of your youth. “I, YAHWEH, the God of Israel, say to you: ‘He who does not love his wife but hates her and divorces her overwhelms her with cruelty. So guard your spirit and do not abandon her.’ This is YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, speaking to you.”