Malachi 1-2

International Children’s Bible

God Tells Israel to Be Loyal

1 This message is the word of the Lord. It is given to Israel through Malachi.

God Loves Israel

²The Lord said, “I love you.”

But you ask, “How have you loved us?”

The Lord said, “Esau and Jacob were brothers. I loved Jacob, ³but I hated Esau. I destroyed his mountain country. I left his land to the wild dogs of the desert.”

⁴The people of Edom might say, “We were destroyed. But we will go back and rebuild the ruins.”

But the Lord of heaven’s armies says, “If they rebuild them, I will destroy them. People will say, ‘Edom is the Wicked Country. The Lord is always angry with the Edomites.’ ⁵You will see these things with your own eyes. You will say, ‘The Lord is great, even outside the borders of Israel!’”

The Priests Don’t Respect God

⁶The Lord of heaven’s armies says, “A son honors his father. A servant honors his master. I am a father. So why don’t you honor me? I am a master. So why don’t you respect me? You priests do not respect me.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown you disrespect?’

⁷“You have shown it by bringing unclean sacrifices to my altar.

“But you ask, ‘What makes them unclean?’

“They are unclean because you don’t show respect for my altar. ⁸You bring blind animals as sacrifices, and that is wrong. You bring crippled and sick animals. That is wrong. Try giving them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? He wouldn’t accept you,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies.

⁹“Now ask God to be kind to you. But he won’t accept you with such offerings,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies.

¹⁰“I wish one of you would close the Temple doors. Then you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you. I will not accept your gifts,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. ¹¹“From the east to the west I will be honored among the nations. Everywhere they will bring incense and clean offerings to me. I will be honored among the nations,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies.

¹²“But you don’t honor me. You say about the Lord’s altar, ‘It is unclean. The food has no worth.’ ¹³You say, ‘We are tired of doing this.’ And you sniff at it in disgust,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies.

“And you bring hurt, crippled and sick animals. You bring them as gifts. But I won’t accept them from you,” says the Lord. ¹⁴“The cheat will be cursed. He has an animal in his flock. He promises to offer it. But then he offers me an animal that has something wrong with it. I am a great king,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. “I am feared by all the nations.

Rules for Priests

2 “Priests, this command is for you. ²Listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Honor my name,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. “If you don’t, I will send a curse on you. I will curse your blessings. I have already cursed them because you don’t pay attention to what I say.

³“I will punish your descendants. I will smear your faces with the garbage from your feasts. And you will be thrown away with it. ⁴Then you will know why I am giving you this command. It is so that my agreement with Levi will continue,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. ⁵“My agreement for priests was with the tribe of Levi. I promised them life and peace. And I gave these to them so they would honor me. They did honor me and fear me. ⁶They taught the true teachings. They spoke no lies. With peace and honesty they did what I said they should do. They kept many people from sinning.

⁷“A priest should teach what he knows. People should learn the teachings from him because he is the messenger of the Lord of heaven’s armies. ⁸But you priests have stopped obeying me. With your teachings you have caused many people to do wrong. You have broken the agreement with the tribe of Levi!” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. ⁹“You have not been careful to do what I say. You take sides in court cases. So I have caused you to be hated and disgraced in front of everybody.”

Judah Was Not Loyal to God

¹⁰We all have the same father. The same God made us. So why do people break their promises to each other? They don’t respect the agreement that our ancestors made with God. ¹¹The people of Judah have broken their promises. They have done something God hates in Israel and Jerusalem. The people of Judah did not respect the Temple that the Lord loves. The men of Judah married the women who worship foreign gods. ¹²The man who does this might bring offerings to the Lord of heaven’s armies. But the Lord will still separate him from the community of Israel.

¹³This is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with your tears. You cry and moan because the Lord does not accept your offerings. He is not pleased with what you bring. ¹⁴You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord sees how you treated the wife you married when you were young. You broke your promise with her. She was your partner. You promised yourself to her. ¹⁵God made husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit for his purpose. This is so they would have children who are true to God. So be careful. Do not break your promise with the wife you married when you were young.

¹⁶The Lord God of Israel says, “I hate divorce. And I hate people who do cruel things as easily as they put on clothes,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. So be careful. And do not break your trust.