Malachi Chapter 1

¹ An Oracle from the LORD to Israel Through Malachi

Jacob Loved More Than Esau

            ² The LORD says, “I’ve loved you.”

 But you ask, “What do you mean ‘loved us’?”

            “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? Yet I’ve loved Jacob ³ and set Esau aside, made his hill country desolate, and left his inheritance for desert jackals.”

            ⁴ Esau’s descendants claim, “We’ve been beaten down, but we’ll come back and rebuild the ruins.”

            But the LORD of Hosts says, “They may rebuild, but I’ll tear it down again. People will call them The Evil Country, The Nation the LORD Is Angry with Forever.”       

⁵ You’ll see this and say, “May the LORD be honored beyond Israel’s boundaries!”

Blemished Sacrifices

            ⁶ The LORD says to priests that despise him, “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. Then if I’m a father, where’s my honor? If I’m a master, where’s my respect?”

“But you ask, ‘Dishonored you? How?’

⁷ “You present defiled sacrifices on my altar.”

“But you ask, ‘Defiled sacrifices, how?’”

“By disrespecting my altar. ⁸ When you offer the blind, lame, and sick, isn’t that disrespect? Why not offer something like that to your governor? Would he be happy with you? Would he accept you?”

Mal 1:1-8

⁹ “Will you ask me to bless you and be gracious to you? With offerings like that, why would I be gracious to anybody? ¹⁰ If only there’d be one among you that would shut the Temple doors so you wouldn’t light fire on my altar for nothing! I’m not happy with you, and I won’t accept your offerings. ¹¹ From sunrise to sunset, I intend to be honored as great the world over, wherever there’s incense and pure grain offerings.

¹² “But you profane me by saying, ‘It won’t hurt anything to defile the LORD’s table; the sacrifices for it are no big deal. ¹³ They’re so tiresome!’

“You blow it off and bring what you stole, something lame or sick, so you can say you brought an offering! ¹⁴ A curse on the cheat that vows a male from his flock but sacrifices a blemished one. What is this?! I’m a great King to be respected the world over!”   

Mal 1:9-14