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The Holy
Bible
Malachi
Chapter 1
1 The burden of the
word of the LORD to Israel by
Malachi.
2 I have loved you, saith
the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein
hast thou loved us? Was not Esau
Jacob's brother? saith the LORD:
yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and
laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of
the wilderness.
4 Whereas Edom saith, We
are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate
places; thus saith the LORD of
hosts, They shall build, but I
will throw down; and they shall
call them, The border of
wickedness, and, The people
against whom the LORD hath
indignation for ever.
5 And your eyes shall see,
and ye shall say, The LORD will
be magnified from the border of
Israel.
6 A son honoureth his
father, and a servant his master:
if then I be a father, where is
mine honour? and if I be a
master, where is my fear? saith
the LORD of hosts unto you, O
priests, that despise my name.
And ye say, Wherein have we
despised thy name?
7 Ye offer polluted bread
upon mine altar; and ye say,
Wherein have we polluted thee? In
that ye say, The table of the
LORD is contemptible.
8 And if ye offer the
blind for sacrifice, is it not
evil? and if ye offer the lame
and sick, is it not evil? offer
it now unto thy governor; will he
be pleased with thee, or accept
thy person? saith the LORD of
hosts.
9 And now, I pray you,
beseech God that he will be
gracious unto us: this hath been
by your means: will he regard
your persons? saith the LORD of
hosts.
10 Who is there even among
you that would shut the doors for
nought? neither do ye kindle fire
on mine altar for nought. I have
no pleasure in you, saith the
LORD of hosts, neither will I
accept an offering at your
hand.
11 For from the rising of
the sun even unto the going down
of the same my name shall be
great among the Gentiles; and in
every place incense shall be
offered unto my name, and a pure
offering: for my name shall be
great among the heathen, saith
the LORD of hosts.
12 But ye have profaned
it, in that ye say, The table of
the LORD is polluted; and the
fruit thereof, even his meat, is
contemptible.
13 Ye said also, Behold,
what a weariness is it! and ye
have snuffed at it, saith the
LORD of hosts; and ye brought
that which was torn, and the
lame, and the sick; thus ye
brought an offering: should I
accept this of your hand? saith
the LORD.
14 But cursed be the
deceiver, which hath in his flock
a male, and voweth, and
sacrificeth unto the LORD a
corrupt thing: for I am a great
King, saith the LORD of hosts,
and my name is dreadful among the
heathen.
Chapter 2
1 And now, O ye
priests, this commandment is for
you.
2 If ye will not hear, and
if ye will not lay it to heart,
to give glory unto my name, saith
the LORD of hosts, I will even
send a curse upon you, and I will
curse your blessings: yea, I have
cursed them already, because ye
do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt
your seed, and spread dung upon
your faces, even the dung of your
solemn feasts; and one shall take
you away with it.
4 And ye shall know that I
have sent this commandment unto
you, that my covenant might be
with Levi, saith the LORD of
hosts.
5 My covenant was with him
of life and peace; and I gave
them to him for the fear
wherewith he feared me, and was
afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in
his mouth, and iniquity was not
found in his lips: he walked with
me in peace and equity, and did
turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest's lips
should keep knowledge, and they
should seek the law at his mouth:
for he is the messenger of the
LORD of hosts.
8 But ye are departed out
of the way; ye have caused many
to stumble at the law; ye have
corrupted the covenant of Levi,
saith the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also
made you contemptible and base
before all the people, according
as ye have not kept my ways, but
have been partial in the law.
10 Have we not all one
father? hath not one God created
us? why do we deal treacherously
every man against his brother, by
profaning the covenant of our
fathers?
11 Judah hath dealt
treacherously, and an abomination
is committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem; for Judah hath
profaned the holiness of the LORD
which he loved, and hath married
the daughter of a strange
god.
12 The LORD will cut off
the man that doeth this, the
master and the scholar, out of
the tabernacles of Jacob, and him
that offereth an offering unto
the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have ye done
again, covering the altar of the
LORD with tears, with weeping,
and with crying out, insomuch
that he regardeth not the
offering any more, or receiveth
it with good will at your
hand.
14 Yet ye say, Wherefore?
Because the LORD hath been
witness between thee and the wife
of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously: yet is
she thy companion, and the wife
of thy covenant.
15 And did not he make
one? Yet had he the residue of
the spirit. And wherefore one?
That he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your
spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of
his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God
of Israel, saith that he hateth
putting away: for one covereth
violence with his garment, saith
the LORD of hosts: therefore take
heed to your spirit, that ye deal
not treacherously.
17 Ye have wearied the
LORD with your words. Yet ye say,
Wherein have we wearied him? When
ye say, Every one that doeth evil
is good in the sight of the LORD,
and he delighteth in them; or,
Where is the God of judgment?
Chapter 3
1 Behold, I will send
my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me: and
the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to this temple,
even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in:
behold, he shall come, saith the
LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the
day of his coming? and who shall
stand when he appeareth? for he
is like a refiner's fire, and
like fullers' soap:
3 And he shall sit as a
refiner and purifer of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer unto
the LORD an offering in
righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering
of Judah and Jerusalem be
pleasant unto the LORD, as in the
days of old, and as in former
years.
5 And I will come near to
you to judgment; and I will be a
swift witness against the
sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his
wages, the widow, and the
fatherless, and that turn aside
the stranger from his right, and
fear not me, saith the LORD of
hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I
change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of
your fathers ye are gone away
from mine ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return unto me,
and I will return unto you, saith
the LORD of hosts. But ye said,
Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet
ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In
tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a
curse: for ye have robbed me,
even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in mine house, and
prove me now herewith, saith the
LORD of hosts, if I will not open
you the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to
receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the
devourer for your sakes, and he
shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground; neither shall your
vine cast her fruit before the
time in the field, saith the LORD
of hosts.
12 And all nations shall
call you blessed: for ye shall be
a delightsome land, saith the
LORD of hosts.
13 Your words have been
stout against me, saith the LORD.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken
so much against thee?
14 Ye have said, It is
vain to serve God: and what
profit is it that we have kept
his ordinance, and that we have
walked mournfully before the LORD
of hosts?
15 And now we call the
proud happy; yea, they that work
wickedness are set up; yea, they
that tempt God are even
delivered.
16 Then they that feared
the LORD spake often one to
another: and the LORD hearkened,
and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before
him for them that feared the
LORD, and that thought upon his
name.
17 And they shall be mine,
saith the LORD of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels; and
I will spare them, as a man
spareth his own son that serveth
him.
18 Then shall ye return,
and discern between the righteous
and the wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that serveth
him not.
Chapter 4
1 For, behold, the day
cometh, that shall burn as an
oven; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh
shall burn them up, saith the
LORD of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor
branch.
2 But unto you that fear
my name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing
in his wings; and ye shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of
the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down
the wicked; for they shall be
ashes under the soles of your
feet in the day that I shall do
this, saith the LORD of
hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of
Moses my servant, which I
commanded unto him in Horeb for
all Israel, with the statutes and
judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful
day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I
come and smite the earth with a
curse.
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