1The burden (prophecy) of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

2“I have loved you”, says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘in what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob's brother?” says the LORD; “Yet I loved Jacob, 3But I rejected Esau, and devastated his mountainous country, leaving it fit for only the jackals of the wilderness.” 4Whereas Edom may say, “Though we have been shattered, yet we will return and rebuild the desolate places”, thus says the LORD of hosts, “They shall build, but I will demolish; and they shall be called ‘The land of wickedness’, and, ‘The people against whom the LORD has indignation forever’. 5And you shall see with your own eyes, and you shall say, ‘The LORD will be magnified – even beyond the border of Israel.’

6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master; if, then, I am a Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is the respect due Me?” says the LORD Almighty to you, O priests, that despise My name. “And you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ 7You offer Me polluted bread on My altar; and you say, ‘How have we polluted You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’ 8When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, is that not wrong? Try offering it to your governor; will he be pleased and accepting of what you offer, or will he accept you as a person?” says the LORD Almighty. 9“Go ahead and beg God to be gracious to you. But when you bring that kind of offering, why should He show you any favor, at all?” asks the LORD of hosts. 10“How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “Neither will I accept an offering from your hands. 11For from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense and pure offerings shall be brought to Me, for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty. 12“But you have profaned it, in that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled; and the food of it is contemptible’. 13You also say, ‘Behold, what a burden – what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty; “And you brought what was injured, lame, and sick; this is the kind of offering you have brought. Should I accept these from your hand?” says the LORD. 14“But cursed be the deceiver, who has an acceptable male in his flock, and vows, and sacrifices to the LORD a blemished animal; for I am a great King”, says the LORD Almighty, “and My name is feared among the nations.