1 The burden of the Word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

2 I have loved you, says the LORD. But you say, In what have You loved us? [Was] not Esau Jacob's brother? says the LORD; yet I loved Jacob,

3 and I hated Esau and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance [to be] for the jackals of the wilderness.

4 If Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places. So says the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them the region of wickedness, and the people [with] whom the LORD [is] indignant forever.

5 And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, The LORD will be magnified beyond the border of Israel.

6 A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I [am] a father, where is My honor? And if I [am] a master, where is My fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. And you say, In what way have we despised Your name?

7 You offer defiled bread upon My altar; and you say, In what way have we defiled You? In your saying, The table of the LORD, it [is] a thing to be despised.

8 And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, [is it] not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, [is it] not evil? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you, or lift up your face, says the LORD of hosts?

9 And now entreat the face of God, that He favor us. This has been by your hands, will He lift up your faces, says the LORD of hosts?

10 Who [is] even among you who will shut the doors, and you not kindle [fire on] My altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts. I will not be pleased with an offering from you.

11 For from the rising of the sun even to its going in, My name shall be great among the nations; and everywhere incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure food offering. For My name [shall be] great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

12 But you are profaning it when you say, The table of the LORD, it [is] polluted; and its fruit, His food, [is] to be despised.

13 You also said, Behold, what a weariness [it is]! And you have puffed at it, says the LORD of hosts. And you bring plunder, and the lame, and the sick, and you bring the food offering. Should I accept it from your hand, says the LORD?

14 But cursed [be] a deceiver; and there is in his flock a male, yet he vows it, but sacrifices to the LORD a blemished [one]. For I [am] a great king, says the LORD of hosts, and My name [is] feared among the nations.