2 And now, O priests, this command is for you. ² If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have already cursed them^[a] because you do not lay it to heart.^{(A) 3} I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.^[b]

⁴ Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts.^{(B) 5} My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.^{(C) 6} True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.^{(D) 7} For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.^{(E) 8} But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts,^{(F) 9} so I make you despised and humbled before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.^(G)

The Covenant Profaned by Judah

¹⁰ Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?^{(H) 11} Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.^{(I) 12} For the one who does this, may the Lord cut off any witness^[c] or advocate from the tents of Jacob or anyone who could bring an offering to the Lord of hosts.^(J)

¹³ And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. ¹⁴ You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.^{(K) 15} Did God^[d] not make them one, flesh with spirit in it? And what does the one desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth.^{[e](L) 16} For I hate^[f] divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

Boasting about Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”^{(A) 14} Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.^{(B) 15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”^{(C) 16} As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.^(D)

Warning to Rich Oppressors

5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.^{(E) 3} Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure^[a] during the last days. ⁴ Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.^{(F) 5} You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.^{(G) 6} You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

The Coming of the Kingdom

²⁰ Once Jesus^[a] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, ²¹ nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among^[b] you.”^(A)

²² Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.^{(B) 23} They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go; do not set off in pursuit.^{(C) 24} For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.^{[c](D) 25} But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.^{(E) 26} Just as it was in the days of Noah, so, too, it will be in the days of the Son of Man.^{(F) 27} They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. ²⁸ Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,^{(G) 29} but on the day that Lot left Sodom it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them; ³⁰ it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away, and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife. ³³ Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.”^{[d] 37} Then they asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the eagles will gather.”