1 Threatenings against the Priests, being seducers of the people.

And now, O ye [a]Priests, this commandment is for you.

If ye will not hear it, nor consider it in your heart, to give glory [b]unto my Name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and will curse your [c]blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not consider it in your heart.

Behold, I will corrupt [d]your seed, and cast dung upon your faces, even the [e]dung of your solemn feasts, and you shall be like unto it.

And ye shall know, that I have [f]sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant, which I made with Levi, might stand, saith the Lord of hosts.

My [g]covenant was with him of life and peace, and I [h]gave him fear, and he feared me, and was afraid before [i]my Name.

The Law of [j]truth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquity found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

For the Priest’s [k]lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth: for he is the [l]messenger of the Lord of hosts.

But ye are gone out of the way: ye have caused many to fall by the Law: ye have broken the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.

Therefore have I also made you to be despised, and vile before all the people, because ye kept not my ways, but have been partial in the Law.

10 Have we not all one [m]father? hath not one God made us? why do we transgress everyone against his brother, and break the covenant of [n]our fathers?

11 Judah hath transgressed, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: for Israel hath defiled the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the [o]daughter of a strange god.

12 The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this: both the master and the servant out of the Tabernacle of Jacob, and him that [p]offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.

13 And this have ye done again, and [q]covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with mourning: because the offering is no more regarded, neither received acceptably at your hands.

14 Yet ye say, [r]Wherein? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast transgressed: yet is she thy [s]companion, and the wife of thy [t]covenant.

15 And did not [u]he make one? yet had he [v]abundance of spirit: and wherefore one? because he sought a godly [w]seed: therefore keep yourselves in your [x]spirit, and let none trespass against the wife of his youth.

16 If thou hatest her, [y]put her away, saith the Lord God of Israel, yet he covereth [z]the injury under his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore keep yourselves in your spirit, and transgress not.

17 Ye have [aa]wearied the Lord with your words: yet ye say wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Everyone that doeth [ab]evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Or where is the God of [ac]judgment?

Footnotes

  1. Malachi 2:1 He speaketh unto them chiefly, but under them he containeth the people also.
  2. Malachi 2:2 To serve me according to my word.
  3. Malachi 2:2 That is, the abundance of God’s benefits.
  4. Malachi 2:3 Your seed sown shall come to no profit.
  5. Malachi 2:3 You boast of your holiness, sacrifices and feasts, but they shall turn to your shame and be as vile as dung.
  6. Malachi 2:4 The Priests objected against the Prophet that he could not reprove them, but he must speak against the Priesthood, and the office established of God by promise, but he showeth that the office is nothing slandered, when these villains and dung are called by their own names.
  7. Malachi 2:5 He showeth what were the two conditions of the covenant made with the tribe of Levi on God’s part, that he would give them long life and felicity, and on their part, that they should faithfully serve him according to his word.
  8. Malachi 2:5 I prescribed Levi a certain Law to serve me.
  9. Malachi 2:5 He served me and set forth my glory with all humilitude and submission.
  10. Malachi 2:6 He showeth that the Priests ought to have knowledge to instruct others in the word of the Lord.
  11. Malachi 2:7 He is as the treasure house of God’s word, and ought to give to everyone according to their necessity, and not to reserve it for himself.
  12. Malachi 2:7 Showing that whosoever doth not declare God’s will, is not his messenger, and Priest.
  13. Malachi 2:10 The Prophet accuseth the ingratitude of the Jews toward God and man: for seeing they were all born of one father Abraham, and God had elected them to be his holy people, they ought neither to offend God nor their brethren.
  14. Malachi 2:10 Whereby they had bound themselves to God to be an holy people.
  15. Malachi 2:11 They have joined themselves in marriage with them that are of another religion.
  16. Malachi 2:12 That is, the Priest.
  17. Malachi 2:13 Yet cause the people to lament, because that God doth not regard their sacrifices, so that they seem to sacrifice in vain.
  18. Malachi 2:14 This is another fault, whereof he accuseth them, that is, that they broke the laws of marriage.
  19. Malachi 2:14 As the one half of thyself.
  20. Malachi 2:14 She that was joined to thee by a solemn covenant, and by the invocation of God’s name.
  21. Malachi 2:15 Did not God make man and woman as one flesh and not many?
  22. Malachi 2:15 By his power and virtue he could have made many women for one man.
  23. Malachi 2:15 Such as should be born in lawful and moderate marriage, wherein is no excess of lusts.
  24. Malachi 2:15 Contain yourselves within your bounds, and be sober in mind, and bridle your affections.
  25. Malachi 2:16 Not that he doth allow divorcement, but of two faults he showeth, which is the less.
  26. Malachi 2:16 He thinketh it sufficient to keep his wife still, albeit he take others, and so as it were covereth his fault.
  27. Malachi 2:17 Ye murmur against God, because he heard not you as soon as ye called.
  28. Malachi 2:17 In thinking that God favored the wicked, and hath no respect to them that serve him.
  29. Malachi 2:17 Thus they blasphemed God in condemning his power and justice, because he judged not according to their fantasies.

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