Malachi 1

Revised Geneva Translation

1 The burden of the Word of the LORD to Israel by the ministry of Malachi.

² “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘How have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD. “Yet I loved Jacob

³ “and I hated Esau and made his mountains waste, and his heritage a wilderness for dragons.

⁴ “Though Edom says, ‘We are impoverished. But we will return and build the desolate places.’ Still, the LORD of Hosts says: ‘They shall build but I will destroy it.’ And they shall call them, ‘The Border of Wickedness,’ and the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.

⁵ “And your eyes shall see it. And you shall say, ‘The LORD will be magnified upon 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 My fear?’ says the LORD of Hosts to you, O priests, who despise My Name. And you say, ‘How have we despised Your Name?’

⁷ “You offer unclean bread upon My Altar. And you say, ‘How have we polluted You?’ By doing that, you say, ‘The Table of the LORD is not to be regarded.’

⁸ “And if you offer the blind for Sacrifice, it is not evil. And if you offer the lame and sick, it is not evil. Offer it now to your princes! Will he be content with you or accept your person?” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁹ “And now, please pray before God that He may have mercy upon us, since this has been done by your hand. Will He regard your means favorably?” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁰ “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors and not kindle fire upon My Altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hand.

¹¹ “For from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same, My Name is great among the Gentiles. And in every place, incense shall be offered to My Name, and a pure Offering. For My Name is great among the heathen,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹² “But you have polluted it, in that you say, ‘The Table of the LORD is polluted, and its fruit. His food is not to be regarded.’

¹³ “You also said, ‘Behold, it is a weariness!’ And you have sneered at it,” says the LORD of Hosts. “And you offered that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus you offered an Offering. Should I accept this from your hand?” says the LORD.

¹⁴ “But cursed is the deceiver who has a male in his flock and vows and sacrifices a corrupt thing to the LORD! For I am a great King!” says the LORD of Hosts, “And My Name is terrible among the heathen.”