Malachi 2
1 And now, this command is for you, priests.
2 If you will not listen and take it to heart to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse against you and curse your blessings. I have already cursed them, because you do not take this to heart.
3 Look, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces—the dung from your festivals—and you will be carried away with it.
4 Then you will know that I sent you this command so that my covenant with Levi may stand,” says the LORD of Hosts.
5 My covenant with him was one of life and peace. I gave them to him so that he would fear me; and he feared me and stood in awe of my name.
6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from sin.
7 For a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge, and people seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
8 But you have turned from the way and caused many to stumble over the instruction. You have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.
9 So I have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you do not keep my ways and show partiality in your instruction.
10 Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why are we unfaithful to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Judah has been unfaithful, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has profaned what is holy to the LORD, what he loves, and married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD remove from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this, whoever he may be, even the one who brings a grain offering to the LORD of Hosts.
13 And you do this too: you cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer turns toward the offering or receives it with pleasure from your hand.
14 And you ask, “Why?” Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been unfaithful, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant.
15 Did he not make them one, with a remnant of the spirit in them? And what does that one seek? Godly offspring. So guard your spirit, and let no one be unfaithful to the wife of his youth.
16 For he hates divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and the one who does it covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. “So guard your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD’s sight, and he delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
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