Malachi 2:1–9

WARNING TO THE PRIESTS

2 “Therefore, this decreez is for you priests: 2 If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heartaa to honor my name,” says the Lord of Armies, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings.ab In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.

3 “Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants,ac and I will spread animal wasteA over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices,ad and you will be taken away with it. 4 Then you will know that I sent you this decree, so that my covenant with Leviae may continue,” says the Lord of Armies. 5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace,af and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.ag 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing wrong was found on his lips. He walked with meah in peace and integrity and turned many from iniquity.ai 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should desire instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Armies.aj

8 “You, on the other hand, have turned from the way.a You have caused many to stumbleb by your instruction. You have violatedB the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Armies. 9 “So I in turn have made you despisedc and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping my ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.”d