Malachi 2

The Lord Rebukes the Priests

1 "And now, O a priests, this commandment is for you. 2 b If you will not hear,
And if you will not take it to heart,
To give glory to My name,"
Says the LORD of hosts,
"I will send a curse upon you,
And I will curse your blessings.
Yes, I have cursed them c already,
Because you do not take it to heart. 3 "Behold, I will rebuke your descendants
And spread d refuse on your faces,
The refuse of your solemn feasts;
And one will e take you away 1 with it. 4 Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you,
That My covenant with Levi may continue,"
Says the LORD of hosts. 5 "My f covenant was with him, one of life and peace,
And I gave them to him g that he might fear Me;
So he feared Me
And was reverent before My name. 6 h The 2 law of truth was in his mouth,
And 3 injustice was not found on his lips.
He walked with Me in peace and equity,
And i turned many away from iniquity. 7 "For j the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,
And people should seek the law from his mouth;
k For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 8 But you have departed from the way;
You l have caused many to stumble at the law.
m You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,"
Says the LORD of hosts. 9 "Therefore n I also have made you contemptible and base
Before all the people,
Because you have not kept My ways
But have shown o partiality in the law."

Judah Profaned the Covenant

10 p Have we not all one Father?
q Has not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously with one another
By profaning the covenant of the fathers? 11 Judah has dealt treacherously,
And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,
For Judah has r profaned
The LORD's holy institution which He loves:
He has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob
The man who does this, being 4 awake and aware,
Yet s who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

13 And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. 14 Yet you say, "For what reason?"
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and t the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
u Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant. 15 But v did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks w godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. 16 "For x the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one's garment with violence,"
Says the LORD of hosts.
"Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously."

The Messenger of the Lord

17 y You have wearied the LORD with your words;
Yet you say,
"In what way have we wearied Him?"
In that you say,
z "Everyone who does evil
Is good in the sight of the LORD,
And He delights in them,"
Or, "Where is the God of justice?"

  1. Cross References
    Malachi 1:6
    "A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'
  2. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:14
    But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments.
    Leviticus 26:15
    And if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant.
    Deuteronomy 28:15
    But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
  3. Cross References
    Malachi 3:9
    You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.
  4. Cross References
    Exodus 29:14
    But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
  5. Cross References
    1 Kings 14:10
    Therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone.
  6. Cross References
    Numbers 25:12
    Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace.
    Ezekiel 34:25
    I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
  7. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 33:9
    Who says of his father and mother, 'I have not seen them'; Nor did he acknowledge his brothers, Or know his own children; For they have observed Your word And kept Your covenant.
  8. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 33:10
    They shall teach Jacob Your judgments, And Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You, And a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.
  9. Cross References
    Jeremiah 23:22
    But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.
    James 5:20
    Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
  10. Cross References
    Numbers 27:21
    "He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the LORD for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him - all the congregation."
    Deuteronomy 17:8 - 11
    If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
    Jeremiah 18:18
    Then they said, "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
  11. Cross References
    Galatians 4:14
    And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
  12. Cross References
    Jeremiah 18:15
    Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway.
  13. Cross References
    Numbers 25:12
    Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace.
    Numbers 25:13
    'and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'"
    Nehemiah 13:29
    Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
    Ezekiel 44:10
    And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.
  14. Cross References
    1 Samuel 2:30
    Therefore the LORD God of Israel says: 'I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.' But now the LORD says: 'Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
  15. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 1:17
    'You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.'
    Micah 3:11
    Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No harm can come upon us.
    1 Timothy 5:21
    I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.
  16. Cross References
    Jeremiah 31:9
    They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.
    1 Corinthians 8:6
    Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
    Ephesians 4:6
    One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
  17. Cross References
    Job 31:15
    Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?
  18. Cross References
    Ezra 9:1
    When these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
    Ezra 9:2
    "For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass."
    Nehemiah 13:23
    In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
  19. Cross References
    Nehemiah 13:29
    Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
  20. Cross References
    Proverbs 5:18
    Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.
    Jeremiah 9:2
    Oh, that I had in the wilderness A lodging place for travelers; That I might leave my people, And go from them! For they are all adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
    Malachi 3:5
    And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien - Because they do not fear Me," Says the LORD of hosts.
  21. Cross References
    Proverbs 2:17
    Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.
  22. Cross References
    Genesis 2:24
    Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
    Matthew 19:4
    And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female.
    Matthew 19:5
    And said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh' ?
  23. Cross References
    Ezra 9:2
    "For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass."
    1 Corinthians 7:14
    For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
  24. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 24:1
    When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house.
    Matthew 5:31
    "Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'
    Matthew 19:6 - 8
    "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
  25. Cross References
    Isaiah 43:22
    But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel.
    Isaiah 43:24
    You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; But you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
  26. Cross References
    Isaiah 5:20
    Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
    Zephaniah 1:12
    "And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, 'The LORD will not do good, Nor will He do evil.'
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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