1 An oracle. The word of Yahweh to Israel through Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says Yahweh, but you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is Esau not Jacob’s brother?” declares Yahweh. “I have loved Jacob,
3 but Esau I have hated. I have made his mountain ranges a desolation, and given his inheritance to the jackals of the desert.”
4 If Edom says, “We are shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,” Yahweh of hosts says this: “They may build, but I will tear down; and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and the people with whom Yahweh is angry forever.”
5 Your eyes will see this, and you will say, “Yahweh is great beyond the borders of Israel.”
6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master; but if I am a father, where is my honor, and if I am a master, where is my reverence?” says Yahweh of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. “But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
7 You are presenting defiled food on my altar! But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ By saying that the table of Yahweh is despised!