Malakhi

Chapter 1

1A revelation, YHWH’s word to Yisrael by Malakhi. 2“I have loved you,” says YHWH. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esav Yaakov’s brother?” says YHWH, “Yet I loved Yaakov; 3but Esav I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.” 4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” YHWH Tzeva'ot says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom YHWH shows wrath forever.” 5Your eyes will see, and you will say, “YHWH is great—even beyond the border of Yisrael!” 6“A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says YHWH Tzeva'ot to you priests who despise my name. “You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘YHWH’s table is contemptible.’ 8When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 9“Now, please entreat the favour of Elohim, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 10“Oh that there were one amongst you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great amongst the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great amongst the nations,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 12“But you profane it when you say, ‘YHWH’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’ 13You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says YHWH Tzeva'ot; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says YHWH. 14“But the deceiver is cursed who has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to Adonai a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “and my name is awesome amongst the nations.”

Chapter 2

1“Now, you priests, this mitzvah is for you. 2If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. 3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. 4You will know that I have sent this mitzvah to you, that my Brit may be with Levi,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 5“My Brit was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent towards me; and he was reverent towards me, and stood in awe of my name. 6The 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. 7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of YHWH Tzeva'ot. 8But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the Brit of Levi,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 9“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. 10Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one Elohim created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the Brit of our fathers? 11Yehudah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Yisrael and in Jerusalem; for Yehudah has profaned the holiness of YHWH which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12YHWH will cut off the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Yaakov and him who offers an offering to YHWH Tzeva'ot. 13“This again you do: you cover YHWH’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. 14Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because YHWH has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your Brit. 15Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Ruach? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16One who hates and divorces”, says YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, “covers his garment with violence!” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful. 17You have wearied YHWH with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in YHWH’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the Elohim of justice?’

Chapter 3

1“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! Adonai, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his Beit HaMikdash. Behold, the messenger of the Brit, whom you desire, is coming!” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 2“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; 3and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to YHWH offerings in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Yehudah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to YHWH as in the days of old and as in ancient years. 5I will come near to you to judgement. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 6“For I, YHWH, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Yaakov, are not consumed. 7From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. 9You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. 10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. 11I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 12“All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 13“Your words have been harsh against me,” says YHWH. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ 14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve Elohim,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before YHWH Tzeva'ot? 15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt Elohim, and escape.’ 16Then those who feared YHWH spoke one with another; and YHWH listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared YHWH and who honoured his name. 17They shall be mine,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. 18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves Elohim and him who doesn’t serve him.

Chapter 4

1“For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. 3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says YHWH Tzeva'ot. 4“Remember the law of Moshe my servant, which I commanded to him in Chorev for all Yisrael, even statutes and ordinances. 5Behold, I will send you Eliyahu the prophet before the great and terrible day of YHWH comes. 6He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”