King James Version

1 And now to you, the priests, this command. 2 If you will not listen and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name, says the Lord of Hosts, then I will send upon you the curse and I will curse your blessings, and indeed, I will curse them because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I am rebuking you for the seed, and I will scatter dung upon your faces, the dung of your festivals, and I will carry you away. 4 And you shall know that I have sent to you this commandment, to be My covenant with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant was with him, life and peace; and I gave them to him for fear, and he feared me, and was in awe of my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips; he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many away from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 And you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble in the Torah; you have corrupted the covenant of the Levi, says the LORD of hosts. 9 And I also gave you to be despised and lowly before all the people according to what you do not keep of my ways and do not hold faces in the law. 10 Is there not one father for all of us? Is there not one God who created us? Why does one deal treacherously against his brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors? 11 Judah has betrayed, and abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the holy place of the Lord which he loved and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 The Lord will cut off the man who makes an idol and a molten image from the tents of Jacob, and presents a grain offering to the Lord of hosts. 13 And this is the second thing you shall do: cover the altar of the Lord with tears and with weeping, and there is no longer turning to the offering, and to take favor from your hand. 14 And you shall say, "What is the matter, that the Lord has been a witness between you and between the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant?" 15 And no one has done, and what is the spirit of him? And what does one seek, the seed of God? And you shall keep yourselves in your spirit, and do not let your youth's wife betray you. 16 For I hate divorce, says the LORD God of Israel, and covering with violence as with a garment, says the LORD of Hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. 17 You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you have said, "In what have we wearied Him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord," and "In them He delights," or "Where is the God of justice?"