Malachi 2

The Lips of a Priest Should Guard Knowledge

← Malachi 1  ·  Malachi: all chapters  ·  Malachi 3 →

This Command Is for You, Priests

2:1“And now this command is for you, priests.

2:2If you do not listen and do not take it into your hearts to give glory to My name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send out the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessing, and I will curse it. I will scatter your blessing, and it will not be among you, because you do not take it into your hearts.

2:3Look, I am setting apart the shoulder for you, and I will scatter the stomach on your faces, the stomach of your festivals, and I will take you to the same place.

2:4You will recognize that I sent out this command to you, so that My covenant might be with the Levites,” says the Lord Almighty.

The Covenant of Life and Peace

2:5“My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave it to him in fear, to fear Me and to shrink back before My name.

2:6A law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. Directing his way in peace, he walked with Me and turned many back from injustice.

2:7For a priest’s lips will guard knowledge, and people will seek law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty.

2:8But you have turned aside from the way and weakened many through the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord Almighty.

2:9“And I have made you despised and neglected among all the nations, because you did not guard My ways but showed partiality in the law.”

Judah Has Broken Faith

2:10Did not one God create you? Is there not one Father of you all? Why have you abandoned, each one his brother, so as to profane the covenant of your fathers?

2:11Judah has been abandoned, and an abomination has occurred in Israel and Jerusalem, because Judah profaned the Lord’s holy things, in which he delighted, and devoted himself to foreign gods.

2:12The Lord will destroy the person who does these things, until he is also humbled away from Jacob’s dwellings and from those who bring a sacrifice to the Lord Almighty.

The Wife of Your Youth

2:13And these things that I hated you were doing: you covered the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning from hardships. Is it still fitting to look toward a sacrifice or accept it from your hands?

2:14And you said, “For what reason?” Because the Lord bore witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you abandoned, though she is your partner and the wife of your covenant.

2:15And no other did it, and there was a remnant of his spirit. And you said, “What else does God seek but offspring?” So guard your spirit, and do not abandon the wife of your youth.

2:16But if, after hating, you send her away, says the Lord, the God of Israel, impiety will cover your thoughts, says the Lord Almighty. So guard your spirit, and you must not abandon.

2:17You who provoke God with your words! And you said, “How have we provoked Him?” By your saying, “Everyone who does evil is good before the Lord, and He has delighted in them,” and, “Where is the God of righteousness?”

← Malachi 1  ·  Malachi: all chapters  ·  Malachi 3 →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.