Armenian Apostolic Church Library Online

Malachi
Chapter 1

1. The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.

2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved

us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob;

3 but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his

heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.

4 Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build

the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will

throw down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The

people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever.

5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond

the border of Israel.

6. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a

father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? saith

Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say,

Wherein have we despised thy name?

7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we

polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible.

8 And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye

offer the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy governor;

will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith Jehovah

of hosts.

9 And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious

unto us: this hath been by your means: will he accept any of your persons?

saith Jehovah of hosts.

10 Oh that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye

might not kindle [fire on] mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,

saith Jehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my

name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall

be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great

among the Gentiles, saith Jehovah of hosts.

12 But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of Jehovah is polluted,

and the fruit thereof, even its food, is contemptible.

13 Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at

it, saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by

violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering: should I

accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah.

14 But cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth,

and sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King,

saith Jehovah of hosts, and my name is terrible among the Gentiles.

1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory

unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse upon you,

and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because

ye do not lay it to heart.

3 Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces,

even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it.

4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my

covenant may be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts.

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that

he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name.

6 The 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.

7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the

law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.

8 But ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble

in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts.

9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the

people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have had respect of

persons in the law.

10. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we

deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of

our fathers?

11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in

Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah

which he loveth, and hath married the daughter of a foreign god.

12 Jehovah will cut off, to the man that doeth this, him that waketh and

him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him that offereth an

offering unto Jehovah of hosts.

13 And this again ye do: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with

weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any

more, neither receiveth it with good will at your hand.

14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee

and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously,

though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

15 And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit?

And wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your

spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

16 For I hate putting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him

that covereth his garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore

take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we

wearied him? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight

of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of justice?

1. Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:

and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the

messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah

of hosts.

2 But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he

appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap:

3 and 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

unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness.

4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto

Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness

against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false

swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the

widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner [from his

right], and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.

6 For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not

consumed.

7. From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine

ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto

you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?

8 Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed

thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food

in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will

not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there

shall not be room enough [to receive it].

11 And I 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 the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome

land, saith Jehovah of hosts.

13. Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What

have we spoken against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we

have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of

hosts?

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are

built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape.

16 Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah

hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for

them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.

17 And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, [even] mine own

possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth

his own son that serveth him.

18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked,

between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

1. For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the

proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that

cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them

neither root nor branch.

2 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise

with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of

the stall.

3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the

soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.

4. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in

Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and

terrible day of Jehovah come.

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the

heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth

with a curse.