1   An oracle: the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 2   "I have loved you," says the LORD. Yet you say, "How have you loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD, "Yet I loved Jacob; 3   but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness." 4   Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says the LORD of hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever." 5   Your eyes will see, and you will say, "The LORD is great—even beyond the border of Israel." 6   "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD of hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, 'How have we despised your name?' 7   You offer defiled bread on my altar. You say, 'How have we defiled you?' In that you say, 'The LORD's table is despised, and its fruit, its food, is despised.' 8   When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn't that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn't that evil? Present it now to your governor. Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?" says the LORD of hosts. 9   "Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?" says the LORD of hosts. 10   "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you," says the LORD of hosts, "neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11   For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations," says the LORD of hosts. 12   "But you profane it, in that you say, 'The LORD's table is defiled, and its fruit, its food, is despised.' 13   You say also, 'Look, what a weariness it is.' and you sniff scornfully at it," says the LORD of hosts; "and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this from your hand?" says the LORD of hosts. 14   "But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the LORD a blemished thing; for I am a great King," says the LORD of hosts, "and my name is awesome among the nations."

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