1. A revelation, the Lord’s word to Israel by Malachi.
2. “I have loved you,” says the Lord.Yet you say, “How have you loved us?”“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says 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 says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;” the Lord of Hosts says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the Lord shows wrath forever.”
5. Your eyes will see, and you will say, “The Lord is great—even beyond the border of Israel!”
6. “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says the Lord of Hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
7. You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘The Lord’s table is contemptible.’
8. When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says the Lord of Hosts.
9. “Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says the Lord of Hosts.