self, and gotten by rapine and extortion.
1:14. Cursed is the deceitful man that hath in his flock a male, and
making a vow offereth in sacrifice that which is feeble to the Lord: for
I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful
among the Gentiles.
Malachias Chapter 2
The priests are sharply reproved for neglecting their covenant. The evil
of marrying with idolaters: and too easily putting away their wives.
2:1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you.
2:2. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give
glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you,
and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have
not laid it to heart.
2:3. Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your
face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it.
I will cast the shoulder to you... I will cast away the shoulder, which
in the law was appointed to be your portion, and fling it at you in my
anger: and will reject both you and your festivals like dung.
2:4. And you shall know that I sent you this commandment, that my
covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
2:5. My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave him fear:
and he feared me, and he was afraid before my name.
2:6. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in
his lips: he walked with me in peace, and in equity, and turned many
away from iniquity.
2:7. For the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall
seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.
The angel... Viz., the minister and messenger.
2:8. But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to
stumble at the law: you have made void the covenant of Levi, saith the
Lord of hosts.
2:9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all
people, as you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the
law.
2:10. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why then
doth every one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our
fathers?
2:11. Juda hath transgressed, and abomination hath been committed in
Israel, and in Jerusalem: for Juda hath profaned the holiness of the
Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
2:12. The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both the
master, and the scholar, out of
|