Old/New Testament
Chapter 1
1 This is an oracle relating the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
The Lord’s Love for Israel
2 I have loved you, says the Lord,
but you ask, “How have you shown your love?”
3 Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? asks the Lord.
Even so, I loved Jacob but I hated Esau.
I reduced his hill country into a wasteland
and made his heritage into a desert for jackals.
4 When Edom says, “We have been crushed,
but we will rebuild the ruins,”
thus says the Lord of hosts:
They may build, but I will demolish.
They will be called a country of wickedness,
the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
5 Your own eyes will see this, and you will say,
“Great is the Lord,
even beyond the borders of Israel.”
The Blemished Offerings and Other Faults of Priests[a]
6 A son honors his father,
and a servant fears his master.
If then I am a father,
where is the honor due to me?
So says the Lord of hosts
to you priests who despise my name.
You ask, “How have we despised your name?”
7 By offering polluted food on my altar.
Then you ask, “How have we polluted it?”
By thinking that the table of the Lord may be despised.
8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice,
is this not evil?
And when you offer in sacrifice
those who are lame or sick,
is this not evil?
If you offer such sacrifices to your governor,
will he be pleased with them,
or show you special favor,
asks the Lord of hosts.
9 In the same way,
if you implore God to show mercy toward you
when you have presented such offerings,
do you think he will grant your request?
Thus says the Lord of hosts.
10 Oh, if only one of you would close the temple gates
and thus bring to an end
the pointless lighting of fires on my altar!
I derive no pleasure from you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and I will not accept
any sacrifice from your hands.
11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting
my name is great among the nations.
Everywhere incense and a pure sacrifice
are offered to my name.
For my name is great among the nations,
says the Lord of hosts.[b]
12 However, you profane my name
when you claim that the table of the Lord is polluted,
and that therefore the food offered on it
is not worthy of respect.
13 You also assert, “How tiresome all this is!”
and you sniff scornfully at me,
says the Lord of hosts.
You bring an animal
that is stolen, lame, or diseased,
and you present it to me as a sacrifice.
Shall I accept this from your hands,
asks the Lord.
14 Accursed is the deceiver
who has a male in his flock
and vows to give it,
but then sacrifices a blemished animal to me.
For I am a great king,
says the Lord of hosts,
and my name is held in awe among the nations.
You Have Made Many People Stumble
Chapter 2
1 And now, O priests,
this commandment is for you.
2 If you refuse to listen to me
and do not sincerely resolve
to give glory to my name,
says the Lord of hosts,
I will send a curse on you,
and I will turn your blessings into a curse.
Indeed, I have already done so
because you have not heeded my warning.
3 I will deprive you of the shoulder
and spread dung on your faces,
the dung of your offerings,
and I will banish you from my presence.
4 Then you will know
that I sent you this commandment
because I wish to maintain
my covenant with Levi,
says the Lord of hosts.
5 My covenant with him
was one of life and peace,
which I bestowed on him.
He revered me
and held my name in awe.
6 The instruction he offered was true,
and no dishonesty issued from his mouth.
He walked with me in integrity and uprightness,
and he turned many away from a sinful life.
7 The lips of a priest should safeguard knowledge,
and people should seek instruction from his mouth
because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have turned aside from the way
and caused many to stumble
as the result of your instruction.
You have destroyed the covenant of Levi,
says the Lord of hosts.
9 Therefore, I have made you despised and vile
in the eyes of all the people,
inasmuch as you have disregarded my ways
and have not been impartial
in your interpretation of the law.
Profaned Marriage[c]
10 Do we all not have the one Father?
Has not one God created us?
Why then do we break faith with one another,
profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Judah[d] has broken faith,
and an abominable thing has been done
in Israel and in Jerusalem.
By marrying the daughter of a foreign god,
Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary.
12 May the Lord banish from the tents of Jacob
any who do this,
and also deprive them of any witness or advocate
or someone to present offerings to the Lord of hosts.
You Betray the Woman of Your Youth[e]
13 And this you are to do as well:
you must cover the altar of the Lord
with tears, with weeping and moaning,
because at present he refuses to consider your offering
or to accept it with satisfaction from your hand.
14 If you ask the reason why,
it is because the Lord stands as witness
between you and the wife of your youth
with whom you have broken faith,
even though she is your partner
and your wife by a solemn covenant.
15 Did not the one God make her,
both flesh and spirit?
And what does the one God require
but God-given offspring?
Therefore, you must safeguard your own life,
and let none of you be unfaithful
to the wife of your youth.
16 For I hate divorce,
says the Lord, the God of Israel,
as well as covering one’s garment with injustice,
says the Lord of hosts.
Therefore, have respect for your own life,
and do not be unfaithful.
God Will Come and Do Justice
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
By asserting, “All who do evil
are good in the eyes of the Lord;
indeed, he delights in them.”
Or by asking,
“Where is the God of justice?”
Chapter 3
1 Behold, I am sending my messenger[f]
to prepare the way before me.
And suddenly the Lord whom you seek
will come to the temple,
as well as the messenger of the covenant
in whom you delight.
Indeed he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts.
2 But who will be able to endure
the day of his coming,
and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire
or like a fuller’s soap.
3 He will sit refining and purifying;
he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold or silver
so that they may in righteousness
offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
4 Thus the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem
will be pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old,
as in the years long past.
5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment,
and I will be swift to bear witness
against the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers,
against those who defraud the hired laborer of his wages,
against those who wrong widows and orphans,
against those who thrust aside the foreigner,
and against those who do not fear me,
says the Lord of hosts.
Make the Tithe Offering to the Lord[g]
6 For I, the Lord, do not change,
and you have not ceased to be sons of Jacob.
7 Since the days of your fathers
you have turned aside from my statutes
and have not kept them.
Return to me,
and I will return to you,
says the Lord of hosts.
Yet you ask,
“How can we return?”
8 Can a man rob God?
Yet you are robbing me.
You ask, “How do we rob you?”
In your tithes and offerings.
9 There is a curse on you all,
for your entire nation has defrauded me.
10 Bring the tithes in full into the treasury
so that there may be food in my house.
Put me thus to the test,
says the Lord of hosts,
and see if I will not open
the windows of heaven for you
and pour down blessings upon you
without measure.
11 For your sake I will forbid the locusts
to destroy the produce of your soil,
and the vines in your fields will not be barren,
says the Lord of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed,
for yours will be a land of delight,
says the Lord of hosts.
The Just Will Have Their Revenge
13 [h]You have spoken harsh words against me,
says the Lord.
Yet you ask,
“What have we said against you?”
14 You have said,
“It is useless to serve God.
What do we profit by keeping his commands
or by going about in penitential garb
before the Lord of hosts?
15 For our part,
we regard the arrogant as happy.
Evildoers not only prosper,
but when they put God to the test,
they come to no harm.”
16 Then those who feared the Lord
spoke with one another.
The Lord listened attentively,
and a book of remembrance was written before him
of those who feared him
and trusted in his name.
17 They shall be mine,
says the Lord of hosts,
my own special possession
on the day when I act,
and I will have compassion on them
as a father has compassion
on the son who serves him.
18 Then you will once again see the difference
between the just and the wicked,
between the one who serves God
and the one who refuses to serve him.
19 For look, the day that is coming
will blaze like a furnace,
and all the proud and all the evildoers
will be stubble.
And the day that is coming
will set them ablaze,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the Lord of hosts.
20 But for you who fear my name
the sun of justice will arise
with its healing rays.
You will emerge leaping
like calves released from the stall
21 and tread down the wicked.
They will be ashes
under the soles of your feet
on the day when I act,
says the Lord of hosts.
VIII: Final Exhortation and Promise
22 Remember the law of Moses my servant,
which I enjoined upon him at Horeb,
the statutes and ordinances
for all Israel.
23 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah
before the day of the Lord comes,
that great and terrible day.
24 He will reconcile parents to their children
and children to their parents,
so that I will not come
and strike the land with a curse.
Chapter 22
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb[a] 2 down the middle of the street. On either side of the river was the tree of life[b] with its twelve crops of fruit, yielding fruit each month. The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.
3 Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face,[c] and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night. They will have no need for light from a lamp or from the sun, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign[d] forever and ever.
Epilogue: My Return Is Near[e]
Worship God Alone. The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord God who inspires the prophets has sent his angel to show his servants what soon must take place.7 “ ‘Behold, I am coming soon!’[f] Blessed is the one who observes the words of prophecy contained in this book.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I knelt at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me to worship him. 9 However, he said to me, “You must not do that. I am a fellow servant of you and of your brethren the prophets and of those who observe the words of this book. Worship God!”
10 The Great Separation.[g] Then he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy that are in this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the wicked persist in acting wickedly, and let the vile continue in their vileness, but let the righteous persevere in righteousness, and let the holy continue to be holy.”
12 “ ‘Behold, I am coming soon, and I will bring with me my reward to repay everyone as his deeds deserve. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.’
14 “Blessed[h] are those who wash their robes clean so that they will be free to eat from the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15 Others must remain outside: the dogs,[i] the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices deceit.
16 “Come, Lord Jesus!”[j]“ ‘I, Jesus, sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David,[k] the bright Morning Star.’ ”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let each listener say, “Come!” Let everyone who thirsts come forward, and let the one who desires it receive the gift of life-giving water.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues written about in this book; 19 if anyone takes away from the words in this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are written about in this book.
20 The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus![l]
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.
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