¹ A message. The word of Yahweh to Israel through Malachi.

² 'I have loved you, says Yahweh. But you ask, "How have you shown your love?" Was not Esau Jacob's brother? declares Yahweh; even so, I loved Jacob

³ but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a desert and his heritage into dwellings in the wastelands.

⁴ If Edom says, "We have been struck down but we shall rebuild our ruins," Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Let them build, but I shall pull down! They will be known as Land of Wickedness and Nation-with-which-Yahweh-is-angry-for-ever.

⁵ You will see this yourselves and you will say: Yahweh is mighty beyond the borders of Israel."

⁶ 'The son honours his father, the slave stands in awe of his master. But if I am indeed father, where is the honour due to me? And if I am indeed master, where is the awe due to me? says Yahweh Sabaoth to you priests who despise my name. You ask, "How have we despised your name?"

⁷ By putting polluted food on my altar. You ask, "How have we polluted you?" By saying, "The table of Yahweh deserves no respect."

⁸ When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is this not wrong? When you bring the lame and the diseased, is this not wrong? If you offer them to your governor, see if he is pleased with them or receives you graciously, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

⁹ In that case, try pleading with God to take pity on us (that is what you have done), and will he take any notice? says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁰ Why does one of you not close the doors and so stop the pointless lighting of fires on my altar? I am not pleased with you, says Yahweh Sabaoth; from your hands I find no offerings acceptable.

¹¹ But from farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations, and everywhere incense and a pure gift are offered to my name, since my name is great among the nations, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹² 'But you have profaned it by saying, "The table of the Lord is polluted, hence the food offered on it deserves no respect."

¹³ You say, "How tiresome it all is!" and sniff disdainfully at me, says Yahweh Sabaoth. You bring a stolen, lame or diseased animal, you bring that as an offering! Am I to accept this from you? says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁴ Cursed be the rogue who has a male in his flock but pays his vow by sacrificing a blemished animal to me! For I am a great king, says Yahweh Sabaoth, and among the nations my name inspires awe.'

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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