“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “But I chose Jacob ³instead of Esau. I turned Esau’s mountains into a dry and empty land. I left that land of Edom to the wild dogs in the desert.”

⁴Edom might say, “We have been crushed. But we’ll rebuild our cities.”

The Lord who rules over all says, “They might rebuild their cities. But I will destroy them. They will be called The Evil Land. My anger will always remain on them. ⁵You will see it with your own eyes. You will say, ‘The Lord is great! He rules even beyond the borders of Israel!’

Give Your Best to the Lord

⁶“A son honors his father. A servant honors his master. If I am a father, where is the honor I should have? If I am a master, where is the respect you should give me?” says the Lord who rules over all. “You priests look down on me.

“But you ask, ‘How have we looked down on you?’

⁷“You put ‘unclean’ food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we made you “unclean?” ’

“You do it by looking down on my altar. ⁸You sacrifice blind animals to me. Isn’t that wrong? You sacrifice disabled or sick animals. Isn’t that wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord who rules over all.

⁹“Now you dare to ask me to show you my favor! But as long as you give offerings like those, how can I accept you?” says the Lord.

¹⁰“You might as well shut the temple doors! Then you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord. “I will not accept any of the offerings you bring.

¹¹“My name will be great among the nations. They will worship me from where the sun rises in the east to where it sets in the west. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to me. That is because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord.

¹²“But you treat my name as if it were not holy. You say my altar is ‘unclean.’ And you look down on its food. ¹³You say, ‘What a heavy load our work is!’ And you turn your nose up as if you hate working for me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

“You bring animals that have been hurt. Or you bring disabled or sick animals. Then you dare to offer them to me as sacrifices! Should I accept them from you?” says the Lord.

¹⁴“Suppose you have a male sheep or goat that does not have any flaws. And you promise to offer it to me. But then you sacrifice an animal that has flaws. When you do that, you cheat me. And anyone who cheats me is under my curse. After all, I am a great king,” says the Lord who rules over all. “The other nations have respect for my name. So why don’t you respect it?

The Lord Warns the Priests

2“Now I am giving a warning to you priests. ²Listen to it. Honor me with all your heart,” says the Lord who rules over all. “If you do not, I will send a curse on you. I will turn your blessings into curses. In fact, I have already done that because you have not honored me with all your heart.

³“Because of what you have done, I will punish your children. I will smear the guts from your sacrifices on your faces. And you will be carried off to the dump along with them. ⁴You will know that I have given you a warning. I have warned you so that my covenant with Levi will continue,” says the Lord who rules over all.

⁵“My covenant promised Levi life and peace. So I gave them to him. I required him to respect me. And he had great respect for my name. ⁶True teaching came from his mouth. Nothing but the truth came from his lips. He walked with me in peace. He did what was right. He turned many people away from their sins.

⁷“The lips of a priest should guard knowledge. People should look for true teaching from his mouth. After all, he is my messenger. ⁸But you have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has caused many people to trip and fall. You have broken my covenant with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all. ⁹“So I have caused all of the people to hate you. They have lost respect for you. You have not done what I told you to do. Instead, you have favored one person over another in matters of the law.”

Judah Is Not Faithful to the Lord

¹⁰People of Judah, all of us have one Father. One God created us. So why do we break the covenant the Lord made with our people long ago? We don’t even keep our promises to one another.

¹¹You have broken your promises. A hateful thing has been done in Israel and Jerusalem. The Lord loves his temple. But you have polluted it. You men have married women who worship other gods.

¹²May the Lord punish you who do that. It doesn’t matter who you are. May the Lord who rules over all cut you off from the tents of Jacob’s people. May he remove you even if you bring offerings to him.

¹³Here’s something else you do. You flood the Lord’s altar with your tears. You sob and cry because he doesn’t pay attention to your offerings anymore. He doesn’t accept them from your hands with pleasure.

¹⁴You ask, “Why?” It’s because the Lord is holding you accountable. He watches how you treat the wife you married when you were young. You have broken your promise to her. You did it even though she’s your partner. You promised to stay married to her. And the Lord was a witness to it.

¹⁵Hasn’t he made the two of you one? Both of you belong to him in body and spirit. And why has he made you one? Because he was looking for godly children. So guard yourself in your spirit. Don’t break your promise to the wife you married when you were young.

¹⁶“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel. “I hate it when people do anything that harms others,” says the Lord who rules over all.

So guard yourself in your spirit. And don’t break your promises.

The Lord Will Judge His People

¹⁷You have worn the Lord out by what you keep saying.

“How have we worn him out?” you ask.

You have done it by saying, “All those who do evil things are good in the Lord’s sight. And he is pleased with them.” Or you ask, “Is God really fair?”

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