Bible (American Standard)/Malachi

Malachi
==Chapter 1==
 The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.
 I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast
thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith Jehovah: yet
I loved Jacob; 
 but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a
desolation, and [gave] his heritage to the jackals of the
wilderness. 
 Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we
will return and build the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of
hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall
call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom
Jehovah hath indignation for ever. 
 And your eyes shall
see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border of
Israel. 
 A son honoreth his father, and a servant his
master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am
a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O
priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we
despised thy name? 
 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine
altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye
say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. 
 And when ye
offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye offer
the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy
governor; will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy
person? saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 And now, I pray you,
entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious unto us: this
hath been by your means: will he accept any of your persons?
saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 Oh that there were one among you
that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle [fire on]
mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of
hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 
 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 Gentiles, saith
Jehovah of hosts. 
 But ye profane it, in that ye say, The
table of Jehovah is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even its
food, is contemptible. 
 Ye say also, Behold, what a
weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith Jehovah of
hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and
the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering: should I
accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah. 
 But cursed be
the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and
sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great
King, saith Jehovah of hosts, and my name is terrible among the
Gentiles.
==Chapter 2==
 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart,
to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I
send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I
have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
 Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon
your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken
away with it. 
 And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith
Jehovah of hosts. 
 My covenant was with him of life and
peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared
me, and stood in awe of my name. 
 The law of truth was in
his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he
walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away
from iniquity. 
 For the priest's lips should keep
knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is
the messenger of Jehovah of hosts. 
 But ye are turned aside
out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye
have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts.
 Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and base
before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways,
but have had respect of persons in the law. 
 Have we not
all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal
treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the
covenant of our fathers? 
 Judah hath dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for
Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah which he loveth, and
hath married the daughter of a foreign god. 
 Jehovah will
cut off, to the man that doeth this, him that waketh and him
that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him that offereth
an offering unto Jehovah of hosts. 
 And this again ye do:
ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with
sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more,
neither receiveth it with good will at your hand. 
 Yet ye
say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee
and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy
covenant. 
 And did he not make one, although he had the
residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He sought a godly
seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of his youth. 
 For I hate
putting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him that
covereth his garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts:
therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
treacherously. 
 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words.
Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that ye say, Every
one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he
delighteth in them; or where is the God of justice?
==Chapter 3==
 Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the
way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to
his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire,
behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 But who can
abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he
appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's
soap: 
 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and
silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in
righteousness. 
 Then shall the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and
as in ancient years. 
 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 the false swearers, and
against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow,
and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner [from his
right], and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 For I,
Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not
consumed. 
 From the days of your fathers ye have turned
aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto
me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye
say, Wherein shall we return? 
 Will a man rob God? yet ye
rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings. 
 Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me,
even this whole nation. 
 Bring ye the whole tithe into the
store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me
now herewith, saith Jehovah 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]. 
 And I will rebuke the
devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the
time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 And all
nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 Your words have been stout
against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken
against thee? 
 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and
what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have
walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? 
 And now we
call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built
up; yea, they tempt God, and escape. 
 Then they that
feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened,
and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for
them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name. 
 And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, [even] mine own
possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a
man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
 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==
 For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace;
and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be
stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith
Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch. 
 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of
righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go
forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. 
 And ye shall
tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles
of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.
 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded
unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
great and terrible day of Jehovah come. 
 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.