1. The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2. I have loved you, says the Lord.But you say, “How have You loved us?”Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob;
3. but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a desolation and left his inheritance for the jackals of the desert.
4. Whereas Edom says, “We are impoverished, but we will rebuild the ruins,” thus says the Lord of Hosts: They may build, but I will tear down. They will be called the Wicked Territory, and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever.
5. Your eyes will see this, and you will say, “Great is the Lord, beyond the border of Israel!”
6. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says the Lord of Hosts to you, O priests, who despise My name. But you say, “How have we despised Your name?”
7. You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, “How have we defiled You?”By saying, “The table of the Lord is contemptible.”