I have loved you, says LORD. Yet ye say, How have thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says LORD. Yet I loved Jacob,

but Esau I regarded inferior, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.

A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? says LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. And ye say, How have we despised thy na

Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar. And ye say, How have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of LORD is contemptible.

And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, [ye say,] It is no evil! and when ye offer the lame and sick, It is no evil! Present it now to thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or will he accept thy person? says LORD of hosts.

[Ye say,] And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us; this has been by your means. Will he accept any of your persons? says LORD of hosts.

For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name [is] great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense [is] offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name [is] great among the Gentiles, says LORD

But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of LORD is polluted. And the fruit of it, even its food, is contemptible.

Ye also say, Behold, what a weariness it is! And ye have sniffed at it, says LORD 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

But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to LORD a blemished thing. For I am a great King, says LORD of hosts, and my name is feared among the Gentiles.

And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth. For he is the messenger of LORD of hosts.

Therefore I also have 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? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness of LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Yet ye say, Why? Because LORD has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou have dealt treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

Ye have wearied LORD with your words. Yet ye say, How have we wearied him? In that ye say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of LORD, and he delights in them, or Where is the God of justice?

But who can abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? 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 to LORD offerings in righteousness.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to LORD, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

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 LORD of hosts?

And they shall be mine, says LORD of hosts, my own possession, in the day that I make. And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace, and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up, says LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But to you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings, and ye shall go forth, and frolic as calves of the stall.