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."

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

[You are] presenting defiled food on my altar! But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' By saying [that] the table of Yahweh is despised!

When you offer a blind [animal] for sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer [the] lame and the one who is ill, is that not wrong? Present it, please, to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? {Will he show you favor}?" says Yahweh of hosts.

So then, {implore the favor of God} so that he will be gracious to us. "{This is what you have done}. {Will he show favor to any of you}?" says Yahweh of hosts.

"Who also among you will shut [the temple] doors [so that] you will not kindle fire in vain [on] my altar? I take no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of hosts, "and {I will not accept} an offering from your hand.

For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.

But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, his food, is contemptible.

And you say, 'Look! [This is] a weariness,' and you sniff [with disdain] at it," says Yahweh of hosts. "And you bring [the] stolen, the lame, and the one that is sick--[this] you bring as the offering! Should I {accept it} from your hand?" says Yahweh.

Cursed be the dissembler, which hath in his flock one that is male, and when he maketh a vow, offereth a spotted one unto the LORD. For I am a great King, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, and my name is fearful among the Heathen.

"Then you will know that I have sent to you this command, that my covenant with Levi {continues}," says Yahweh of hosts.

My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and trembled before my name.

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.

Dealt treacherously hath Judah, And abomination hath been done in Israel, and in Jerusalem, For polluted hath Judah the holy thing of Jehovah, That He hath loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man that doeth this, him that calleth and him that answereth; and him that offereth an oblation unto Jehovah of hosts.

And further ye do this: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the oblation any more, nor receiveth it with satisfaction at your hand.

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.

And did he not make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And why 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 putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel;) and he covereth with violence his garment, saith Jehovah of hosts: take heed then to your spirit, that ye deal not unfaithfully.

Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, and ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Who shall endure in the day of his coming, or who shall stand to behold him? For he is as trying fire, and as the herb that fullers scour withal.

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 to the LORD an offering in righteousness.

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.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.

For I am the LORD that change not, and ye, O children of Jacob, will not leave off.

From the days of your fathers, have ye departed from my statutes, and not observed them, Return ye unto me, that I may return unto you, saith Yahweh of hosts. And yet ye say, Wherein shall we return?

Bring the whole tithe to {the storehouse}, so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you {an overflowing blessing}.

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.

Insomuch that all people shall say that ye be blessed, for ye shall be a pleasant land, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge, and that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?

And now we hold the proud for happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and they escape.

Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.

"They will be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I [am] acting, [my] treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

And ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

For behold, the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and leap like fatted calves.

You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I [am] going to act," says Yahweh of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel -- statutes and judgments.

See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared.

And he will bring back [the] hearts of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the hearts of [the] sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land [with] a ban."