2“And now, you priests, this warning is for you.^v ²If you do not listen,^w and if you do not resolve to honor^x my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse^y on you, and I will curse your blessings.^z Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

³“Because of you I will rebuke your descendants^a; I will smear on your faces the dung^a from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.^b ⁴And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi^c may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁵“My covenant was with him, a covenant^d of life and peace,^e and I gave them to him; this called for reverence^f and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. ⁶True instruction^g was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked^h with me in peaceⁱ and uprightness,^j and turned many from sin.^k

⁷“For the lips of a priest^l ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger^m of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.ⁿ ⁸But you have turned from the way^o and by your teaching have caused many to stumble;^p you have violated the covenant^q with Levi,”^r says the Lord Almighty. ⁹“So I have caused you to be despised^s and humiliated^t before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality^u in matters of the law.”^v

Read in Logos

Malachi 2:5: My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.

Footnotes

aOr will blight your grain

Cross references

vver 7
w Jer 13:17
x Mt 15:7–9; Jn 5:23; 1 Ti 6:16; Rev 5:12–13
ySee Dt 11:26; See 28:20
z Nu 6:23–27
aSee Ex 29:14; See Lev 4:11; See Job 9:31
b 1 Ki 14:10
cSee Nu 3:12
d Dt 33:9; Ps 25:10; 103:18; See Mt 26:28; See Lk 22:20; Heb 7:22
eSee Nu 25:12
fSee Dt 14:23; See 28:58; Ps 119:161; Heb 12:28
gSee Dt 33:10
hSee Ge 5:22
i Lk 2:14; See Jn 14:27; Gal 5:22
jSee Ps 25:21
kSee Ro 11:14; Jas 5:19–20
lSee Jer 18:18
mSee Nu 27:21; See 2 Ch 36:15; Mt 11:10; Mk 1:2
nSee Lev 10:11; See 2 Ch 17:7
oSee Ex 32:8; Jer 2:8
pSee Jer 18:15
q Jer 33:21; See Eze 22:26
rSee Hos 4:6
sSee 1 Sa 2:30; See Ps 22:6; See Jer 51:37
tSee Ps 35:4; Jer 3:25; Ac 8:32–33
uSee Ex 18:16; See Lev 19:15; Ac 10:34; Ro 2:11
vSee 1 Sa 2:17