1 The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
2 I have loved you, says the LORD. Yet you ask, "In what way have you loved us?" Was Esau not Jacob's brother? declares the LORD. And I loved Jacob,
3 while Esau I hated; I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and handed his inheritance over to the desert jackals.
4 Edom may say, "We have been crushed, but we will go back and rebuild the ruins"; this is what the LORD of hosts says: Let them build; I will pull it down. They will be known as the land of wickedness, the people the LORD is angry with forever.
5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, "The LORD is great, even beyond Israel's borders!"
6 A son gives honor to his father, and a servant to his master. If I am a father, then, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the reverence for me? says the LORD of hosts to you priests who treat my name with contempt. Yet you ask, "In what way have we despised your name?"
7 You bring defiled food to my altar. Then you ask, "In what way have we defiled you?" By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible.
8 When you bring a blind animal to sacrifice, is that no evil? When you bring one that is lame or sick, is that no evil? Just try offering it to your governor! Will he be pleased with you or receive you graciously? says the LORD of hosts.
9 So now plead with God for mercy, that he may be gracious to us! With this coming from your hands, will he receive any of you with favor? says the LORD of hosts.
10 If only one of you would close the temple doors, so that you would stop lighting useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will accept no grain offering from your hand.
11 For from where the sun rises to where it sets, my name is great among the nations; everywhere incense is brought to my name, and a pure grain offering, for great is my name among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.
12 But you treat it as common when you say, "The Lord's table is defiled, and what it yields, its food, is contemptible."
13 And you say, "What a burden!" and you turn up your noses at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring animals that were stolen, or lame, or sick, and that is what you bring as an offering! Should I accept it from you? says the LORD.
14 A curse on the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, then sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord! For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is held in awe among the nations.