Malachi 2

¹“Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

¹³then you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

¹³But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

¹⁸Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”

⁷And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

²²May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap.

¹¹If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

⁹You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.

⁶I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.

⁹“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

¹⁷The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.

¹⁰Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!

¹⁴But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

⁷he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’

¹²“Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel in place of every firstborn Israelite from the womb. The Levites belong to Me,

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁹This is what the Lord God says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh may enter My sanctuary—not even a foreigner who lives among the Israelites.

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.

¹¹‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off as a testimony against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’

¹²His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

¹²Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace.

¹³It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

²⁶And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

⁹Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to Himself to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?

¹⁰He has brought you near, you and all your fellow Levites, but you are seeking the priesthood as well.

²⁶So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.

²⁷He told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

⁸Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.

⁹A portion of the most holy offerings reserved from the fire will be yours. From all the offerings they render to Me as most holy offerings, whether grain offerings or sin offerings or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons.

³Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

¹⁵Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth.

¹⁶But avoid irreverent, empty chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness,

⁵And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

²²But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.”

¹⁹My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,

²⁰consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

²⁴And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²⁵He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

¹¹so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.”

⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

²⁰Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”

²⁹Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.

¹¹Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

¹⁷Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

⁴²Woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

⁶But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me.

¹⁷“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸“Which ones?” the man asked. Jesus answered, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,

⁶Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

⁷Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

³Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

¹¹Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

¹⁶Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

⁸But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

¹⁴Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

²Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These women were from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

³Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

⁴because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

²³In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of the other peoples, but could not speak the language of Judah.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

¹⁰Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

¹⁸Among the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women were found these descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

¹⁹They pledged to send their wives away, and for their guilt they presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.

²²But Samuel declared: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.”

³And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.

³⁰But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the Lord. That person shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the Lord and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

¹⁴So the Lord will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

¹¹“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the Lord. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

¹²When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you—this trampling of My courts?

¹²Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

¹⁹And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying aloud.

²⁰Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.

⁹Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

¹⁴I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything You commanded me.

¹⁵Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

⁹Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun.

⁶For the Lord has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.

⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁷who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

⁴Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

⁶However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

⁷‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

²⁰The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

²¹So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.

²⁷So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

¹¹In the same way, the women must be dignified, not slanderers, but temperate and faithful in all things.

¹²A deacon must be the husband of but one wife, a good manager of his children and of his own household.

³Then some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”

⁴Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

³¹It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

²Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired.

³“What did Moses command you?” He replied.

¹⁸Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

¹If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

²If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

²⁴You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.

³Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

⁴“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

¹⁸Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the Lord is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.

¹¹When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁹to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”