THE BOOK OF MALACHI
King James Version
1 ¶ The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by
Malachi.
2 I have loved
you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau
Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: 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
saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places;
thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they
shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the
LORD hath indignation for ever.
5
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD 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? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye
say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
7 Ye offer
polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In
that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
8 And if ye offer
the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is
it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
9 And now, I pray
you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your
means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
10 Who is there
even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire
on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD 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 shall be great
among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name,
and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the
LORD of hosts.
12
But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is
polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
13 Ye said also,
Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of
hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye
brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
14
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth,
and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the
LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
1 ¶ And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
2
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory
unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I
will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye 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 shall take you away with it.
4
And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my
covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD 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 the LORD of hosts.
8 But ye are
departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have
corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
9
Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the
people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the
law.
10 ¶ Have we not all one father? hath not one God created
us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning
the covenant of our fathers?
11
Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which
he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD 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 the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have
ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD 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 ye say,
Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the
wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy
companion, and the wife of thy 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 the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for
one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take
heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
17 Ye have
wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When
ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD,
and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
1 ¶ Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to
his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he
shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
2
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he
appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
3 And he shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an
offering in righteousness.
4
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the
LORD, 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, saith
the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the
LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 ¶ Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away
from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we
robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed
with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me
now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there
shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your
ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field,
saith the LORD of hosts.
12
And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith the LORD of hosts.
13 ¶ Your words have been stout against me, saith the
LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14 Ye have said,
It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD
of hosts?
15 And now we
call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that
tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that
feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard
it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall
be mine, saith the LORD 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 shall ye
return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that serveth him not.
1 ¶ For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and
the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you
that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of
the stall.
3 And ye shall
tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in
the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 ¶ Remember ye 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 the LORD:
6 And he shall
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.