I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, In what hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

A son honoreth 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? saith the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, In what have we despised thy name?

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

And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now to thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on my altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

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

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

If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yes, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

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

But ye have departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering to the LORD of hosts.

And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

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

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.

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

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 false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, In what shall we return?

Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, In what have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now with this, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

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

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

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