Warning to the Priests
1 “Therefore, this decreeis for you priests:
2 If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heartto honor My name,” says Yahweh of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings.In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.
3 “Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants,and I will spread animal wasteover your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices,and you will be taken away with it.
4 Then you will know that I sent you this decree so My covenant with Levimay continue,” says theLordof Hosts.
5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace,and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.
6 True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing wrong was found on his lips. He walked with Mein peace and fairness and turned many from sin.
7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of theLordof Hosts.
8 “You, on the other hand, have turned from the way.You have caused many to stumbleby your instruction. You have violatedthe covenant of Levi,” says theLordof Hosts.
9 “So I in turn have made you despisedand humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.”
Judah’s Marital Unfaithfulness
10 Don’t all of us have one Father?Didn’t one God create us?Why then do we act treacherously against one another,profaningthe covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestablething has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profanedtheLord’s sanctuary,which He loves,and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 To the man who does this, may theLordcut offany descendantsfrom the tents of Jacob, even if they present an offering to theLordof Hosts.
13 And this is another thing you do: you cover theLord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning,because He no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.
14 Yet you ask, “For what reason? ” Because theLordhas been a witnessbetween you and the wife of your youth.You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partnerand your wife by covenant.
15 Didn’t the one God make us with a remnant of His life-breath? And what does the One seek?A godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully,and do not act treacherously against the wife of your youth.
16 “If he hatesand divorces his wife,” says theLordGod of Israel, “hecovers his garment with injustice,”says theLordof Hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully,and do not act treacherously.
Judgment at the Lord’s Coming
17 You have wearied theLordwith your words.
Yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him? ”
When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in theLord’s sight, and He is pleased with them,”or “Where is the God of justice? ”
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