1. The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
2. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob;
3. but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
4. Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down: and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
5. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel.
6. 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 the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
7. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.