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Malachi 2
1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give
glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you,
and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do
not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your
faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you,
that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to
him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in
his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from
iniquity.
7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek
the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 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.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all
the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the
law.
10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do
we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant
of our fathers?
11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed
in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD
which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and
the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering
unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with
tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the
offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit.
And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your
spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts:
therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein
have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight
of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
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