Malachi
2 “And now this commandment is to YOU, O priests.+ 2 If YOU will not listen,+ and if YOU will not lay [it] to heart+ to give glory to my name,”+ Jehovah of armies has said, “I shall also certainly send upon YOU the curse,+ and I will curse YOUR blessings.+ Yes, I have even cursed the [blessing],* because YOU are not laying [it] to heart.”
3 “Look! I am rebuking on YOUR account the [sown] seed,+ and I will scatter dung* upon YOUR faces, the dung of YOUR festivals; and someone will actually carry YOU away to it. 4 And YOU will have to know that I have sent to YOU this commandment,+ in order that my covenant+ with Leʹvi* may continue,”+ Jehovah of armies has said.
5 “As for my covenant, it proved to be with him, [one] of life and of peace,+ and I kept giving them to him, with fear. And he continued fearing me;+ yes, because of my name he himself was struck with terror.+ 6 The very law of truth* proved to be in his mouth,+ and there was no unrighteousness to be found on his lips. In peace and in uprightness he walked with me,+ and many were those whom he turned back from error.+ 7 For the lips of a priest are the ones that should keep knowledge, and [the] law is what people should seek from his mouth;+ for he is the messenger* of Jehovah of armies.+
8 “But YOU men—YOU have turned aside from the way.+ YOU have caused many to stumble in the law.+ YOU have ruined the covenant of Leʹvi,”+ Jehovah of armies has said. 9 “And I also, for my part, shall certainly make YOU to be despised and low to all the people,+ according as YOU were not keeping my ways, but were showing partiality in the law.”+
10 “Is it not one father that all of us have?+ Is it not one God* that has created us?+ Why is it that we deal treacherously with one another,+ in profaning the covenant of our forefathers?+ 11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and a detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem;+ for Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah,+ which He has loved, and he has taken possession of the daughter of a foreign god* as a bride.+ 12 Jehovah will cut off each one that does it,+ one who is awake and one who is answering, from the tents of Jacob, and one who is presenting a gift offering+ to Jehovah of armies.”
13 “And this is the second thing that YOU people do, [this resulting in] covering with tears the altar of Jehovah, with weeping and sighing, so that there is no more a turning toward the gift offering or a taking of pleasure [in anything] from YOUR hand.+ 14 And YOU have said, ‘On what account?’+ On this account, that Jehovah himself has borne witness between you and the wife of your youth,+ with whom you yourself have dealt treacherously, although she is your partner and the wife of your covenant.+ 15 And there was one who did not do [it], as he had what was remaining* of [the] spirit. And what was that one seeking? The seed of God.*+ And YOU people must guard yourselves respecting YOUR spirit,+ and with the wife of your youth may no one deal treacherously.+ 16 For he has hated a divorcing,”*+ Jehovah the God of Israel has said; “and the one who with violence has covered over his garment,”+ Jehovah of armies has said. “And YOU must guard yourselves respecting YOUR spirit, and YOU must not deal treacherously.+
17 “YOU people have made Jehovah weary by YOUR words,+ and YOU have said, ‘In what way have we made [him] weary?’ By YOUR saying, ‘Everyone that is doing bad is good in the eyes of Jehovah, and in such ones he himself has taken delight’;+ or, ‘Where is the God* of justice?’”+