1The Lord talked to the Israelites. He sent Malachi to give them a message.
God loved Jacob but He did not love Esau
2The Lord said: ‘People of Israel, I love you. But you ask Me: “How can we see that You love us?” ’
The Lord says: ‘Esau was Jacob's brother. I loved Jacob 3but I did not love Esau as much as I loved Jacob. I took Esau's descendants, the Edomites, away from the mountains where they were living and I gave their land to foxes.
4Some of the people of Edom say: “Our towns are destroyed. Our homes are just heaps of stones, but we will build our houses again.”
But then I, the Lord who rules over all, say: They can build houses, but I will break them down again. People will say Edom's land is the land where the bad people lived and the Lord will always be angry with them. 5People of Israel, you will see it for yourselves and you will say: “The Lord is great and strong, even outside the land_of_Israel.” ’
Why must you honour the Lord?
6The Lord who rules over all says: ‘A son honours his father and a slave honours the man to whom he belongs. If I am your Father, why don't you honour Me? If you belong to Me, why don't you respect Me? Your priests did not respect my name, but you ask: “Why do you say we did not respect your name?”
7You bring offerings that are impure to my altar, and then you ask: “Why do you say we think You are impure? What have we done wrong?”
You are doing wrong when you show that you do not respect the Lord's altar. 8You bring blind animals to sacrifice to Me. Do you think that is right? No, it is wrong. You sacrifice sick or crippled animals to Me. That is also wrong. What will happen if you give a sick or a crippled animal to someone who rules over you? Will he be happy and friendly to you? No.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
9‘You say: “If God is not friendly to us, then we must do something so that he can be friendly to us again.”
But if you do these things that are wrong, He will not be friendly to you.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
10‘It would be better if one of you closes the doors of the temple and locks them and puts out the fire on the altar, because it does not help if the fire is burning. I am not pleased with you and I do not want an offering from you.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
11‘All the people on earth praise my name from the morning to the evening and the people from everywhere bring pure offerings to Me. Yes, all nations worship Me.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
12‘But you who are my priests, you do not honour Me. You make the altar of the Lord impure and you do not respect the offerings on the altar. 13And you say it is hard work to sacrifice_offerings. You don't want to do it.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says: ‘You bring animals that you have stolen and animals that are sick and not healthy, and you sacrifice them to Me. I don't want them,’ says the Lord.
14‘If someone has a bull or a ram and he promises to sacrifice it to Me, but he brings an ox or a wether, then he is not honest and I will curse him. I am the Great_King and everyone honours Me.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
