Malachi 2

¹And now, priests, this commandment is for you:

If you do not listen,

²And if you do not take to heart[#Lv 26:14–45; Dt 28:15.]

giving honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts,

I will send a curse upon you

and your blessing I will curse.

In fact, I have already cursed it,

because you do not take it to heart.

³I will rebuke your offspring;

I will spread dung on your faces,

Dung from your feasts,

and will carry you to it.

⁴You should know that I sent you this commandment

so that my covenant with Levi might endure,

says the Lord of hosts.

⁵My covenant with him was the life and peace which I gave him,[#Ez 37:26.]

and the fear he had for me,

standing in awe of my name.

⁶Reliable instruction was in his mouth,[#Dt 33:8–11.]

no perversity was found upon his lips;

He walked with me in integrity and uprightness,

and turned many away from evil.

⁷For a priest’s lips preserve knowledge,[#Lv 10:10–11; Dt 17:9–10; Hg 2:11–13.]

and instruction is to be sought from his mouth,

because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

⁸But you have turned aside from the way,

and have caused many to stumble by your instruction;

You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,

says the Lord of hosts.

⁹I, therefore, have made you contemptible

and base before all the people,

For you do not keep my ways,

but show partiality in your instruction.

¹⁰Have we not all one father?[#Intermarriage of Israelites with foreigners was forbidden according to Dt 7:1–4. After the exile, attempts were made to enforce this law (Ezr 9–10). Foreign marriages are here portrayed as a covenantal violation (v. 10). They were all the more reprehensible when they were accompanied by the divorce of Israelite wives (vv. 14–16), and God finds their sacrifices unacceptable (vv. 13–14). In Mk 10:2–12, Jesus forbids divorce; in Mt 19:3–12, this ideal is maintained with the provision that unlawful marriage may be grounds for divorce (see 1 Cor 7:10–16). : a warning of punishment for failure to obey God (cf. Dt 4:9; Jos 23:11; Jer 17:21).; #Dt 32:6; Jb 31:15; Mt 23:9; Eph 4:6.]

Has not one God created us?

Why, then, do we break faith with each other,

profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

¹¹Judah has broken faith; an abominable thing[#Ezr 9:2; Neh 13:25.]

has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem.

Judah has profaned the Lord ’s holy place, which he loves,

and has married a daughter of a foreign god.

¹²May the Lord cut off from the man who does this

both witness and advocate from the tents of Jacob,

and anyone to bring an offering to the Lord of hosts!

¹³This also you do: the altar of the Lord you cover

with tears, weeping, and groaning,

Because the Lord no longer takes note of your offering

or accepts it favorably from your hand.

¹⁴And you say, “Why?”—[#Gn 31:49–50; Prv 5:18–19.]

Because the Lord is witness

between you and the wife of your youth

With whom you have broken faith,

though she is your companion, your covenanted wife.

¹⁵Did he not make them one, with flesh and spirit?[#Gn 2:7, 22–24.]

And what does the One require? Godly offspring!

You should be on guard, then, for your life,

and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

¹⁶For I hate divorce,

says the Lord , the God of Israel,

And the one who covers his garment with violence,

says the Lord of hosts.

You should be on guard, then, for your life,

and you must not break faith.

¹⁷You have wearied the Lord with your words,

yet you say, “How have we wearied him?”

By saying, “All evildoers

are good in the sight of the Lord ,

And he is pleased with them,”

or “Where is the just God?”