Malachi 2

God says, “Now, priests, this command is for you.

If you do not obey me and make sure that you honor me, I will curse you,” says God, who commands the heavenly armies. “I will even curse the good things I have given you. In fact, I have already started to curse them, because you are not taking seriously what I have told you to do. \*

I am ready to punish you by keeping you from having good harvests. You will be disgraced, as if I had spread animal waste on your faces, the waste from the animals you sacrifice at festivals. People will consider you as worthless as that waste!

Then you will know that I gave you this command so that my agreement with the priests, the descendants of Levi, will continue.” This is what God, who commands the heavenly armies, says. \*

“I made a peaceful and life-giving agreement with them because they revered me, and they revered me greatly.

They taught the people what was true, and they did not say things that were wrong. They lived peacefully and honestly, the way I wanted them to, and they helped many people stop doing bad things.

After all, a priest should teach people how to know God better. People should learn from what the priest says, because he brings messages from me, God, the commander of the heavenly armies. \*

But you priests have stopped living the way I want. Your teaching has caused many people to do wrong things. You have failed to keep the agreement I made with the Levite priests,” says God, the commander of the heavenly armies.

“So I have made people disrespect you and I have humiliated you before all the people. This is because you have not lived the way I want people to live. You have also not treated everyone fairly when you have applied my laws.” \*

In a sense, we all have the same father, since the same God created each of us. So we should not break our promises to each other. If we do, we dishonor the agreement God made with our ancestors.

The people of Judah have not been faithful to God. They have done terrible things in Israel and Jerusalem. They have dishonored the temple that God loves. They are worshiping foreign gods instead of God.

I hope God will remove from among the people of Israel every single person who does this, even if they bring offerings to God, who is the commander of the heavenly armies. \*

This is another thing you do: When you come to offer sacrifices at God’s altar, you weep bitterly. You cry and groan because God no longer accepts your offerings. \*

You may wonder what I mean and ask, “Why does he not accept them?” It is because God knows that you have not been faithful to the wife you married as a young man. You did this even though she was your partner and you promised to be her husband.

God has united husbands and wives so that they are one, and he has made their marriage a spiritual relationship. God made them one because he wants them to have children who are faithful to him. So be careful. Do not break your promise to the wife you married when you were a young man.

God, the God of Israel, says, “I hate divorce. I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to your wife. So be careful. Do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.” This is what God, who commands the heavenly armies, says. \*

God is tired of hearing what you have been saying. You may wonder what I mean and ask, “How have we made him tired?” You have made him tired by saying, “God thinks that people who do evil things are actually good. He is happy with them.” God is also tired of hearing you say, “God is not being fair!” \*