Malachi 1:1–8

God’s Love for Jacob

1 The 1aoracle of the word of the Lord to bIsrael through 2Malachi.

2 “I have aloved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I bhave loved Jacob;

3 but I have hated Esau, and I have amade his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”

4 Though Edom says, “We have been abeaten down, but we will 1breturn and build up the ruins”; thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may cbuild, but I will tear down; and men will call them the 2wicked territory, and the people 3toward whom the Lord is indignant dforever.”

5 Your eyes will see this and you will say, “aThe Lord 1be magnified beyond the 2border of Israel!”

Sin of the Priests

6 “ ‘A son ahonors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a bfather, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My 1respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O cpriests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

7 “You are presenting adefiled 1bfood upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The ctable of the Lord is to be despised.’

8 “But when you present the ablind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? 1Why not offer it to your bgovernor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” says the Lord of hosts.