"I have loved you," sayeth the LORD: And yet ye say, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" sayeth the LORD, "Yet have I loved Jacob,

And though Edom said, "Well, we are destroyed, we will go build up again the places that be wasted": yet sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "What they builded, that brake I down: so that it was called a cursed land and people, whom the LORD hath ever been angry withal."

If ye offer the blind, is not that evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is not that evil? Yea offer it unto thy prince: shall he be content with thee, or accept thy person, sayeth the LORD of Hosts?

Yea, what is he among you, that will do so much as to shut the doors, or to kindle the fire upon mine altar for naught? I have no pleasure in you, sayeth the LORD of Hosts: and as for the meat offering, I will not accept it at your hand.

But ye have unhallowed it, in that ye say, 'The altar of the LORD is not to be regarded, and the thing that is set thereupon, not worthy to be eaten.'

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.

If ye will not hear it, nor regard it, to give the glory unto my name, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, I will send a curse upon you, and will curse your blessings. Yea, curse them will I if ye do not take heed.

Behold, I shall corrupt your seed, and cast dung in your faces: even the dung of your solemn feasts and it shall cleave fast upon you.

For the priest's lips should be sure knowledge, that men may seek the law at his mouth, for he is a messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

But as for you, ye are gone clean out of the way, and have caused the multitude to be offended at the law: ye have broken the covenant of Levi, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

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.

Now have ye brought it to this point again, that the altar of the LORD is covered with tears, weeping, and mourning: so that I will no more regard the meat offering, neither will I receive or accept anything at your hands.

And yet ye say, 'Wherefore?' Even because that whereas the LORD made a covenant betwixt thee and the wife of thy youth, thou hast despised her: Yet is she thine own companion and married wife.

So did not the one, and yet had he an excellent spirit. What did then the one? He sought the seed promised of God. Therefore look well to your spirit, and let no man despise the wife of his youth.

Ye grieve the LORD with your words, and yet ye say, 'Wherewithal have we grieved him?' In this, that ye say: 'All that do evil are good in the sight of God, and such please him.' Or else where is the God that punisheth?

And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem shall be delicious unto the LORD as in the old time and in the years that were at the beginning.

Should a man use falsity and deceit with God, as ye use falsity and deceit with me? Yet ye say, 'Wherein use we deceit with thee?' In tithes and heave offerings.

Bring every tithe into my barn, that there may be meat in mine house: and prove me withal, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven unto you, and pour you out a blessing with plenteousness.

Yea, I shall reprove the consumer for your sakes, so that he shall not eat up the fruit of your ground, neither shall the vineyard be barren in the field, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

Ye speak hard words against me, sayeth the LORD. And yet ye say, 'What have we spoken against thee?'

Ye have said, 'It is but lost labour, to serve God: What profit have we for keeping his commandments, and for walking humbly before the LORD of Hosts?

Therefore may we say, that the proud are happy, and that they which deal with ungodliness, are set up: for they tempt God and yet escape.'

But they that fear God, say thus one to another, 'The LORD considereth and heareth it. Yea, it is before him a memorial book, written for such as fear the LORD, and remember his name.'

Turn you therefore, and consider what difference is betwixt the righteous and ungodly: betwixt him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.

For mark, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea and all such as do wickedness, shall be straw: and the day that is for to come, shall burn them up, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.