"I've loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, "How have you loved us?'

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD, "yet I loved Jacob, hated Esau, turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to desert jackals.

Even though Edom may claim, "We were crushed, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,' this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "They may rebuild, but I'll demolish. People will call them, "The Wicked Land,' and, "The People With Whom the LORD is Forever Angry.'

Your own eyes will see this, and you will say, "Great is the LORD even beyond the borders of Israel!'"

"A son honors his father and a servant his master. So if I'm a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my respect?" says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies to you priests who are despising my name. "But you ask, "How have we despised your name?'

By presenting defiled food on my altar. And you ask, "How have we defiled you?' By saying, "The Table of the LORD is contemptible.'

When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Offer that to your governor would he be pleased with you or receive you favorably?" asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"And now, go ahead and implore God by saying, "Be gracious to us.' Will he receive you favorably and accept offerings like that from your hand?" asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"But you are profaning my name by saying that the Table of the LORD is defiled and that its fruit and its food are contemptible.

"Cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock, and vows to give it, but sacrifices a mutilated one to the LORD. Indeed, I am a great king," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "and my name is feared among the Gentiles."

Now this commandment is for you priests:

"My covenant with him was for life and peace, and I gave the commandments to him so he would fear me. He did fear me as he stood in my presence.

Do we not have one father? Has not one God created us? Why does each of us act deceitfully, each man against his own brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors?

"This is another thing you do: you flood the altar of the LORD with tears, weeping and wailing because he no longer pays attention to your offering nor takes pleasure in it from your hand.

Yet you ask, "For what reason?' Because the LORD acts as a witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you were unfaithful to her, your partner, the wife of your covenant.

"You have wearied the LORD with your words. You ask, "How have we wearied you?' By your saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD and he's pleased with them,' or "Where is the God of justice?'"

"Watch out! I'm sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly, the LORD you are looking for will come to his Temple. He is the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Watch out! He is coming!" says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

Then the offering to the LORD by Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable as it was in the past, even as in former years.

You said, "It is futile to serve God,' and, "What did we get out of it when we carried out his requirements and went about like mourners in the presence of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies?'

"They'll be mine," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "in the day when I prepare my treasured possession. I'll spare them, just as a man spares his own son who serves him.

"The coming day is certainly going to burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and all who practice evil will be stubble the coming day will set them on fire," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.