1 An oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.But you ask: “How have You loved us? ”“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? ” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob,
3 but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
4 Though Edom says: “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of Hosts says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country and the people the Lord has cursed forever.
5 Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me? says Yahweh of Hosts to you priests, who despise My name.”Yet you ask: “How have we despised Your name? ”
7 “By presenting defiled food on My altar.”You ask: “How have we defiled You? ” When you say: “The Lord’s table is contemptible.”