1Now, therefore, for you, is this charge, O ye priests:—
2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my Name, saith Yahweh of hosts, then will I send among you the curse, and will curse your blessings,—and indeed I have cursed them, because ye are not at all laying it to heart.
3Behold me! threatening, on your account, the seed, and I will scatter refuse upon your faces, the refuse of your festivals,—and one shall carry you away unto it;
4So shall ye know that I sent unto you this charge,—as being my covenant with Levi, saith Yahweh of hosts.
5My covenant, was with him, Life and Well-being, so I gave them to him—[I] as One to be revered— and he did revere me,— and, before my Name, dismayed, was he.
6The deliverance of truth, was in his mouth, and, perverseness, was not found in his lips,— In well-doing and in uprightness, walked he with me, and, multitudes, did he turn from iniquity.
7For, the lips of a priest, should keep knowledge, and, a deliverance, should men seek at his mouth,— for, the messenger of Yahweh of hosts, he is.
8But, ye, have departed out of the way, ye have caused multitudes to stumble at the deliverance,— ye have violated the covenant of Levi, saith Yahweh of hosts.
9Therefore, I also, will suffer you to be despised and of no account unto all the people,—in proportion as none of you have been keeping my ways, but have had respect to persons, in giving your deliverance.
10Is there not, one Father, to us all? Did not, one GOD, create us? Wherefore should we deal treacherously one with another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11Judah, hath dealt treacherously, and, an abomination, hath been wrought in Israel, and in Jerusalem,— for Judah, had profaned, the holy place of Yahweh, which he had loved, and hath taken to himself the daughter of a foreign GOD.
12May Yahweh, cut off, from the man that doeth it—him that crieth out and him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob,— him also that bringeth near a present to Yahweh of hosts.
13And, this, a second time, will ye do, covering with tears, the altar of Yahweh, weeping and making outcry,—because he will not again turn unto the gift, and receive [it] with acceptance, at your hands?
14Yet ye say, For what cause? Because, Yahweh, hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, with whom, thou, hast dealt treacherously, though, she, was thy consort, and thy covenant wife.
15Now was it not, One, [who] made [you] who had, the residue of the spirit? What, then, of that One? He was seeking a godly seed. Therefore should ye take heed to your spirit, and, with the wife of thy youth, do not thou deal treacherously.
16For he hateth divorce, saith Yahweh, God of Israel, him also who covereth with violence his own clothing, saith Yahweh of hosts,—therefore should ye take heed to your spirit, and not deal treacherously.
17Ye have wearied Yahweh with your words, and yet ye say, Wherein have we been wearisome? When ye have said, Everyone who doeth wrong, is right in the eyes of Yahweh, and, in them, he hath taken delight, or, Where is the God of justice?