1 An oracle. The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
2 I love you, says the Lord;but you say, “How do you love us?”
3 Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?—oracle of the Lord.I loved Jacob, but rejected Esau;I made his mountains a waste,his heritage a desert for jackals.
4 If Edom says, “We have been crushed,but we will rebuild the ruins,”Thus says the Lord of hosts:They indeed may build, but I will tear down,And they shall be called “territory of wickedness,”the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
5 Your own eyes will see it, and you will say,“Great is the Lord, even beyond the territory of Israel.”
6 A son honors his father,and a servant fears his master;If, then, I am a father,where is the honor due to me?And if I am a master,where is the fear due to me?So says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests,who disdain my name.But you ask, “How have we disdained your name?”
7 By offering defiled food on my altar!You ask, “How have we defiled it?”By saying that the table of the Lord may be disdained!