1. An oracle. The word of Yahweh to Israel through Malachi.
2. “I have loved you,” says Yahweh, but you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is Esau not Jacob’s brother?” declares Yahweh. “I have loved Jacob,
3. but Esau I have hated. I have made his mountain ranges a desolation, and given his inheritance to the jackals of the desert.”
4. If Edom says, “We are shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,” Yahweh of hosts says this: “They may build, but I will tear down; and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and the people with whom Yahweh is angry forever.”
5. Your eyes will see this, and you will say, “Yahweh is great beyond the borders of Israel.”
6. “A son honors his father, and a slave his master; but if I am a father, where is my honor, and if I am a master, where is my reverence?” says Yahweh of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. “But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
7. 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!
8. 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.
9. 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.