1. The burden of a word of Jehovah unto Israel by the hand of Malachi:
2. I have loved you, said Jehovah, And ye have said, `In what hast Thou loved us?'
3. Is not Esau Jacob's brother? --an affirmation of Jehovah, And I love Jacob, and Esau I have hated, And I make his mountains a desolation, And his inheritance for dragons of a wilderness.
4. Because Edom saith, `We have been made poor, And we turn back and we build the wastes,' Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They do build, and I do destroy, And [men] have called to them, `O region of wickedness,' `O people whom Jehovah defied to theage.'
5. And your eyes do see, and ye say, `Magnified is Jehovah beyond the border of Israel,
6. A son honoureth a father, and a servant his master. And if I [am] a father, where [is] Mine honour? And if I [am] a master, where [is] My fear? Said Jehovah of Hosts to you, O priests, despising My name! And ye have said: `In what have we despised Thy name?'
7. Ye are bringing nigh on Mine altar polluted bread, And ye have said: `In what have we polluted Thee?' In your saying: `The table of Jehovah--it [is] despicable,'