1 The Lord Almighty says to the priests, “This command is for you: 2 You must honor me by what you do. If you will not listen to what I say, then I will bring a curse on you. I will put a curse on the things you receive for your support. In fact, I have already put a curse on them, because you do not take my command seriously. 3 I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice—and you will be taken out to the dung heap. 4 Then you will know that I have given you this command, so that my covenant with the priests, the descendants of Levi, will not be broken.
5 “In my covenant I promised them life and well-being, and this is what I gave them, so that they might respect me. In those days they did respect and fear me. 6 They taught what was right, not what was wrong. They lived in harmony with me; they not only did what was right themselves, but they also helped many others to stop doing evil. 7 It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty.
8 “But now you priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have broken the covenant I made with you. 9 So I, in turn, will make the people of Israel despise you because you do not obey my will, and when you teach my people, you do not treat everyone alike.”
The People's Unfaithfulness to God
10 Don't we all have the same father? Didn't the same God create us all? Then why do we break our promises to one another, and why do we despise the covenant that God made with our ancestors? 11 The people of Judah have broken their promise to God and done a horrible thing in Jerusalem and all over the country. They have defiled the Temple which the Lord loves. Men have married women who worship foreign gods. 12 May the Lord remove from the community of Israel those who did this, and never again let them participate in the offerings our nation brings to the Lord Almighty.
13 This is another thing you do. You drown the Lord's altar with tears, weeping and wailing because he no longer accepts the offerings you bring him. 14 You ask why he no longer accepts them. It is because he knows you have broken your promise to the wife you married when you were young. She was your partner, and you have broken your promise to her, although you promised before God that you would be faithful to her. 15 Didn't God make you one body and spirit with her? What was his purpose in this? It was that you should have children who are truly God's people. So make sure that none of you breaks his promise to his wife. 16 “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel. “I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to his wife. Make sure that you do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.”
The Day of Judgment Is Near
17 You have tired the Lord out with your talk. But you ask, “How have we tired him?” By saying, “The Lord Almighty thinks all evildoers are good; in fact he likes them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God who is supposed to be just?”
1 And now, O ye Priests, this commandement is for you. 2 If yee will not heare it, nor consider it in your heart, to giue glory vnto my Name, sayth the Lord of hostes, I will euen sende a curse vpon you, and will curse your blessings: yea, I haue cursed them alreadie, because yee doe not consider it in your heart. 3 Behold, I wil corrupt your seede, and cast dongue vpon your faces, euen the dongue of your solemne feastes, and you shall be like vnto it. 4 And yee shall know, that I haue sent this commandement vnto you, that my couenant, which I made with Leui, might stand, sayeth the Lord of hostes. 5 My couenant was with him of life and peace, and I gaue him feare, and he feared mee, and was afraid before my Name. 6 The lawe of trueth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquitie founde in his lippes: hee walked with me in peace and equitie, and did turne many away from iniquitie. 7 For the Priestes lippes shoulde preserue knowledge, and they shoulde seeke the Lawe at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hostes. 8 But yee are gone out of the way: yee haue caused many to fall by the Lawe: yee haue broken the couenant of Leui, sayeth the Lord of hostes. 9 Therefore haue I also made you to be despised, and vile before all the people, because yee kept not my wayes, but haue beene partiall in the Lawe. 10 Haue we not all one father? hath not one God made vs? why doe we transgresse euery one against his brother, and breake the couenant of our fathers? 11 Iudah hath transgressed, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Ierusalem: for Iudah hath defiled the holinesse of the Lord, which hee loued, and hath maried the daughter of a strange God. 12 The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this: both the master and the seruaunt out of the Tabernacle of Iaacob, and him that offereth an offering vnto the Lord of hostes. 13 And this haue ye done againe, and couered the altar of the Lord with teares, with weeping and with mourning: because the offering is no more regarded, neither receiued acceptably at your handes. 14 Yet yee say, Wherein? Because the Lord hath beene witnesse betweene thee and the wife of thy youth, against whome thou hast transgressed: yet is shee thy companion, and the wife of thy couenant. 15 And did not hee make one? yet had hee abundance of spirit: and wherefore one? because he sought a godly seede: therefore keepe your selues in your spirit, and let none trespasse against the wife of his youth. 16 If thou hatest her, put her away, sayeth the Lord God of Israel, yet he couereth the iniurie vnder his garment, saieth the Lord of hosts: therefore keepe your selues in your spirite, and transgresse not. 17 Yee haue wearied the Lord with your woordes: yet yee say, Wherein haue we wearied him? When ye say, Euery one that doeth euill, is good in the sight of the Lord, and he deliteth in them. Or where is the God of iudgement?