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

And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the jackals of the wilderness.

A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, How have we despised your name?

You offer polluted bread upon my altar; and you say, How have we polluted you? In that you say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

And if you offer the blind for a sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept your person? says the LORD of hosts.

And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: This has been by your gift: will he regard your persons? says the LORD of hosts.

Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nothing? neither do you kindle fire on my altar for nothing. I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

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

You said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and you have sneered at it, says the LORD of hosts; and you brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus you brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? says the LORD.

But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations.

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

For the priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the law from his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial 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, by 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 the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Yet you say, Why? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, How have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

But who may endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

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

You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?

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

For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.