Malachi
Chapter 2
1 And now, priests, this order is for you.
2 If you won’t listen and don’t take seriously giving honor to my name, says God of all, I will send a curse on you, and I will turn your blessings into curses—indeed, I have already done it because you don’t take it to heart.
3 Look, I will ruin your crops and put waste on your faces, the waste from your special feasts; and someone will carry you off with it.
4 You will understand that I sent this order to you so that my agreement would be with Levi, says God.
5 I made a promise to him of life and peace; and I gave them to him because he respected me and was in awe of my name.
6 He spoke the truth, and no wrong was on his lips; he walked with me in peace and fairness, turning many from sin.
7 The priest’s mouth should share knowledge, and people should look for teaching from him, because he is God’s messenger.
8 You have left the right path; you made many people trip over the law; you have ruined the agreement of Levi, says God.
9 Because of this, I have made you despised and lowly in front of everyone, because you have not followed my ways and have been unfair in applying the law.
10 Don’t we all have one father? Didn’t one God make us? Why then do we betray each other, breaking the agreement of our ancestors?
11 Judah has been unfaithful, and a terrible thing has happened in Israel and Jerusalem; Judah has disgraced the sacredness of God, which he cherished, and has married a woman who worships a different god.
12 God will remove the man who does this, both the leader and the follower, from the homes of Jacob, and anyone who makes an offering to God of hosts.
13 You have done this again, making God’s altar wet with tears, weeping, and loud crying, so much that God doesn’t care about the offerings, or accept them happily from you.
14 But you ask, “Why?” It is because God has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have betrayed, although she is your partner, the wife you promised to stay with.
15 Did not God make them one? Yet he had a spirit left. Why one? To find a godly offspring. So watch over your spirit, and do not betray the wife of your youth.
16 God, the God of Israel, says he hates divorce: for it covers one’s clothes with violence, says God of the armies: so be careful in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.
17 You have tired God with your words. But you ask, “How have we tired him?” When you say, “Anyone who does evil is good to God, and he enjoys them,” or “Where is the God who judges?”