but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.

Because Edom saith, 'We have been made poor, And we turn back and we build the wastes,' Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They do build, and I do destroy, And men have called to them, 'O region of wickedness,' 'O people whom Jehovah defied to the age.'

"A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects his master. If I am your father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The Lord who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply, 'How have we made light of your name?'

You put unclean bread on my altar. And you say, How have we made it unclean? By your saying, The table of the Lord is of no value.

But now plead for God's favor that he might be gracious to us. "With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?" asks the Lord who rules over all.

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 up of the sun unto the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles. Yea, in every place shall there sacrifice be done, and a clean meat offering offered up unto my name: for my name is great among the Heathen, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.

Now say ye, 'It is but labour and travail,' and thus have ye thought scorn at it, sayeth the LORD of Hosts; offering robbery, yea the lame and the sick. Ye have brought me in a meat offering? Should I accept it of your hand? sayeth the LORD.

And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD 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.

But you are turned out of the way; you have made the law hard for numbers of people; you have made the agreement of Levi of no value, says the Lord of armies.

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Have we not all one father? has not one God made us? why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother, putting shame on the agreement of our fathers?

Judah has been acting falsely, and a disgusting thing has been done in Jerusalem; for Judah has made unclean the holy place of the Lord which is dear to him, and has taken as his wife the daughter of a strange god.

But the LORD shall destroy the man that doth this, yea both the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacle of Jacob, with him that offereth up meat offering unto the LORD of Hosts.

This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with [your own] weeping and sighing, because the Lord no longer regards your offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

But you say, “Why [does He reject it]?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your marriage companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your vows].

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

“For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong and violence,” says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore keep watch on your spirit, so that you do not deal treacherously [with your wife].”

You have made the Lord tired with your words. And still you say, How have we made him tired? By your saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he has delight in them; or, Where is God the judge?

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD 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.