1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it
3 Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feasts, and ye shall be taken away with it.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi, says LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant of life and peace was with him. And I gave them to him that he might fear, and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth. For he is the messenger of LORD of hosts.
8 But ye are turned aside out of the way. Ye have caused many to stumble in the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have had respect of persons in the law.
10 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness of LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 LORD will cut off out of the tents of Jacob, the man who does this: him who wakes, and him who answers, and him who offers an offering to LORD of hosts.
13 And this again ye do: Ye cover the altar of LORD with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he does not regard the offering any more, nor receives it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet ye say, Why? Because LORD has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou have dealt treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
15 And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16 For I hate putting away, says LORD, the God of Israel, and him who covers his garment with violence, says LORD of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
17 Ye have wearied LORD with your words. Yet ye say, How have we wearied him? In that ye say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of LORD, and he delights in them, or Where is the God of justice?