Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.

"A son honors his father and a servant his master. So if I'm a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my respect?" says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies to you priests who are despising my name. "But you ask, "How have we despised your name?'

Ye are bringing nigh on Mine altar polluted bread, And ye have said: 'In what have we polluted Thee?' In your saying: 'The table of Jehovah -- it is despicable,'

And ye are polluting it in your saying, 'The table of Jehovah -- it is polluted, As to its fruit -- despicable is its food.'

If ye hearken not, and if ye lay it not to heart, To give honour to My name, said Jehovah of Hosts, I have sent against you the curse, And I have cursed your blessings, Yea, I have also cursed it, Because ye are not laying it to heart.

But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

And I also, I have made you despised and low before all the people, Because ye are not keeping My ways, And are accepting persons in the law.

{Do we not all have} one father? Has not one God created us? Why [then] are we unfaithful {to one another}, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

"You have wearied the LORD with your words. You ask, "How have we wearied you?' By your saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD and he's pleased with them,' or "Where is the God of justice?'"

Lo, I am sending My messenger, And he hath prepared a way before Me, And suddenly come in unto his temple Doth the Lord whom ye are seeking, Even the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye are desiring, Lo, he is coming, said Jehovah of Hosts.

And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Doth man deceive God? but ye are deceiving Me, And ye have said: 'In what have we deceived Thee?' The tithe and the heave-offering!

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

And declared you happy have all the nations, For ye are a delightful land, said Jehovah of Hosts.

“Your words against Me are harsh,” says the Lord.

Yet you ask: “What have we spoken against You?”

And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant (proud, self-righteous, haughty), and every evildoer shall be stubble; and the day that is coming shall set them on fire,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts.