THE BOOK OF MALACHI

CHAPTER 1

THE burden of the word of Yahowah to Israel by Malachi.

2 I have loved you, says Yahowah. Yet You say, Wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says Yahowah: yet I loved Jacob,

3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

4 Whereas Edom says, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus says Yahowah of hosts, They will build, but I will throw down; and they will call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom Yahowah has indignation for ever.

5 And your eyes will see, and You will say, Yahowah will be magnified from the border of Israel.

6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? says Yahowah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And You say, Wherein have we despised Your name?

7 You offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and You say, Wherein have we polluted you? In that You say, The table of Yahowah is contemptible.

8 And if You offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if You offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto Your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept Your person? says Yahowah of hosts.

9 And now, I pray you, beseech Elohim that he will be gracious unto us: this has been by your means: will he regard your persons? says Yahowah of hosts.

10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nothing? neither do You kindle fire on mine altar for nothing. I have no pleasure in you, says Yahowah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name will be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense will be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name will be great among the heathen, says Yahowah of hosts.

12 But You have profaned it, in that You say, The table of Yahowah is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.

13 You said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and You have snuffed at it, says Yahowah of hosts; and You brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus You brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? says Yahowah.

14 But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto Yahowah a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says Yahowah of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

CHAPTER 2

AND now, O You priests, this commandment is for you.

2 If You will not hear, and if You will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says Yahowah of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because You do not lay it to heart.

3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it.

4 And You will know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says Yahowah of hosts.

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of Yahowah of hosts.

8 But You are departed out of the way; You have caused many to stumble at the law; You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahowah of hosts.

9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as You have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

10 Have we not all one father? has not one Elohim created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahowah which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god.

12 Yahowah will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto Yahowah of hosts.

13 And this have You done again, covering the altar of Yahowah with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

14 Yet You say, Wherefore? Because Yahowah has been witness between you and the wife of Your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she Your companion, and the wife of Your covenant.

15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

16 For Yahowah, the Elohim of Israel, says that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, says Yahowah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that You deal not treacherously.

17 You have wearied Yahowah with your words. Yet You say, Wherein have we wearied him? When You say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Yahowah, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the Elohim of judgment?

CHAPTER 3

BEHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me: and Yahowah, whom You seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom You delight in: behold, he will come, says Yahowah of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who will stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

3 And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto Yahowah an offering in righteousness.

4 Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Yahowah, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says Yahowah of hosts.

6 For I am Yahowah, I change not; therefore You sons of Jacob are not consumed.

7 Even from the days of your fathers You are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says Yahowah of hosts. But You said, Wherein will we return?

8 Will a man rob Elohim? Yet You have robbed me. But You say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.

9 You are cursed with a curse: for You have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring You all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says Yahowah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he will not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither will your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says Yahowah of hosts.

12 And all nations will call you blessed: for You will be a delightsome land, says Yahowah of hosts.

13 Your words have been stout against me, says Yahowah. Yet You say, What have we spoken so much against you?

14 You have said, It is vain to serve Elohim: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahowah of hosts?

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt Elohim are even delivered.

16 Then they that feared Yahowah spoke often one to another: and Yahowah hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Yahowah, and that thought upon his name.

17 And they will be mine, says Yahowah of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

18 Then will You return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth Elohim and him that serveth him not.

CHAPTER 4

FOR, behold, the day cometh, that will burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, will be stubble: and the day that cometh will burn them up, says Yahowah of hosts, that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

2 But unto you that fear my name will the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and You will go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3 And You will tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I will do this, says Yahowah of hosts.

4 Remember You the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahowah:

6 And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.