| 2:1 | “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. |
| 2:2 | If you do not listen and take seriously* the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment* on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart. |
| 2:3 | I am about to discipline your children* and will spread offal* on your faces,* the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it. |
| 2:4 | Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant* may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all. |
| 2:5 | “My covenant with him was designed to bring life and peace. I gave its statutes to him to fill him with awe, and he indeed revered me and stood in awe before me. |
| 2:6 | He taught what was true;* sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin. |
| 2:7 | For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him* because he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all. |
| 2:8 | You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law;* you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,”* says the Lord who rules over all. |
| 2:9 | “Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your* instruction.” |
| 2:10 | Do we not all have one father?* Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors? |
| 2:11 | Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem.* For Judah has profaned* the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god!* |
| 2:12 | May the Lord cut off from the community* of Jacob every last person who does this,* as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all! |
| 2:13 | You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears* as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you. |
| 2:14 | Yet you ask, “Why?” The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young,* to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law.* |
| 2:15 | No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this.* What did our ancestor* do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth.* |
| 2:16 | “I hate divorce,”* says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,”* says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.” |
| 2:17 | You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” Because you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s opinion,* and he delights in them,” or “Where is the God of justice?” |
Malachi 2 - NET Bible [draft]
