The Book of the Prophet Malachi
"My messenger"
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Chapter 1
The heavy burden, which the Lord
showed against Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord:
And yet ye say: wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacobs
brother, saith the Lord? yet have I loved Jacob, and hated Esau: yee
I have made his hills waste, and his heritage a wilderness for
dragons. And though Edom said: well, we are destroyed, we will go
build up again the places that be layed waste: yet ( sayeth the Lord
of hosts ) what they builded, that brake I down: so that it is
called a cursed land, and people, whom the Lord hath ever been angry
withal.
Your eyes have seen it, and ye your selves must confess, that
the Lord hath brought the land of Israel to great honor. Should not
a son honor his father, and a servant his master? If I be now a
father, where is mine honor? If I be the Lord, where am I feared?
sayeth the Lord of hosts.
Now to you priests, that despise my name. And if ye say:
wherein have we despised thy name? In this, that ye * offer unclean
bread upon my altar. And if ye will say: wherein have we offered any
unclean thing unto the? In this that ye say: the altar of the Lord
is not to be regarded. If ye offer the blind, is that not evil? And
if yee offer the lame and sick, is that not evil? Yee offer it unto
thy prince, shall he be content with thee, or except thy person,
sayeth the Lord of hosts?
And now make your prayer before God, that he may have mercy
upon us: for such things have yee done. Shall he regard your
persons, think ye, sayeth the Lord of hosts? Yee what is he among
you, that will do so much as shut the doors, or to kindle fire upon
mine alter for nought? I have no pleasure in you, sayeth the Lord of
hosts: and as for the meatoffering, I will not accept it at your
hand. For the rising up of the son unto the going down of the same,
my name is great among the Gentiles: yee in every place shall there
be sacrifice be done, and a clean meatoffering offered up to my
name: for my name is great among the Heathen, sayeth the Lord of
hosts. But yee have unhallowed it, in that ye say, the alter of the
Lord is not regarded, and * the thing that is set thereupon , not
worthy to be eaten.
Now say ye: It is but labor and travail, and thus have ye
thought scorn at it (sayeth the Lord of hosts ) offering robbery,
yee the lame and sick. Ye have brought me in a meatoffering, should
I accept it of your hand sayeth the Lord? Cursed be the dissembler,
which has in his flock one that is male, and when he maketh a vow,
offereth a spotted one unto the Lord. For I am a great king (sayeth
the lord of hosts) and my name is fearful among the Heathen.
* to offer defiled bread is to do anything by hypocrisy and not to
the glory of God, as hath been commanded in his word, but according
to the inventions and dreams of men. Oseas 9 MN * Or his word
and his meat are despised.
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Chapter 2
And now ( O ye
priests ) this commandment toucheth you: If ye will not hear it, to
give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will send a
curse upon you, and will curse your blessings: yea, curse them will
I if you do not take heed. Behold, I shall corrupt your seed, and
cast dung in your faces: even the dung of your solemn feasts and it
shall cleave fast upon you. And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you: that my covenant which I made with Levi, might
stand, saith the Lord of hosts.
I made a covenant of life and peace with him: this I gave him,
that he might stand in awe of me: and so he did fear me, and had my
name in reverence. The law of truth was in his mouth, and there was
no wickedness found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and
equity, and did turn many one away from their sins. For the priests
lips should be sure knowledge, that the men may seek the law at his
mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. But as for you,
ye are gone clean out of the way, and have caused the multitude to
be offended at the law: ye have broken the covenant of Levi, saith
the Lord of hosts. Therefore will I also make you despised, and to
be of no reputation among all the people: because ye have not kept
my ways, but have been partial in the law.
Have we not all one father? Hath not one God made us? why doth
every one of us then despise his own brother, and so break the
covenant of our fathers? Now hath Judah offended: yee the
abomination is done in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath
defiled the Sanctuary of the Lord, which he loved, and hath kept the
daughter of a strange God. But the Lord shall destroy the man that
doeth this, yee both the master and the scholar, out of the
tabernacle of Jacob, with him that offereth up meatoffering unto the
Lord of hosts. Now have ye brought it to this point again, that the
altar of the Lord is covered with tears weeping, and mourning: so
that I will nomore regard the meatoffering, neither will I receive
or accept anything at your hands. And yet ye say: wherefore? Even
because that where as the Lord made a covenant between thee and thy
wife of thy youth, thou hast despised her: Yet is she thy own
companion and married wife.
So did not the one, and yet had he an excellent spirit. What
did then the one? He sought the seed promised of God. Therefore look
well to your spirit, and let no man despise the wife of his youth.
If thou hatest her put her away, saith the Lord God of Israel and
give her clothing for her scorn, sayeth the Lord of hosts. Look well
then to your spirit, and despise her not. Ye grieve the Lord with
your words, and yet ye say: wherewith all have we grieved him? In
this, that ye say: All that do evil are good in the sight of God,
and such please him. Or else where is the God that punisheth?
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Chapter 3
Behold, I will send my
messenger, which shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom
ye would have, shall soon come to his temple, yee even the messenger
of the covenant whom ye long for.
Behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide
the day of his coming? Who shall be able to endure, when he
appeareth? For he is like a goldsmiths fire, and like washers soap.
He shall sit him down to try and to cleanse the silver, he shall
purge the children of Levi, and purify them as gold and silver: that
they may bring meatofferings unto the Lord in righteousness. Then
shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be acceptable unto the
Lord, like as from the beginning and the years, afore time. I will
come and punish you, and I myself will be a swift witness against
the witches, against the *advouterers, against false swearers: yee
and against those, that wrongfully keep back the hirelings duty:
which vex the widows and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger,
and fear me not, saith the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord that
change not, and ye ( O children of Jacob ) will not leave off : ye
are gone away from mine ordinances, and since the time of your
forefathers have not kept them.
Turn you now unto me, and I will turn me unto you, saith the
Lord of hosts: ye say: wherein shall we turn? Should a man use
falsehood and deceit with God as ye use falsehood and deceit with
me. Yet ye say wherein use we deceit with thee? In Tithes and heave
offerings. Therefore are ye cursed with *penury, because ye
dissemble with me, all the *forte of you.
Bring every Tithe in to my barn, that there may be meat in my
house: and prove me with all ( sayeth the Lord of hosts ) if I will
not open the windows of heaven unto you, and pour you out a blessing
with plenteousness. Yee, I shall reprove the consumer for your
sakes, so that he shall not eat up the fruit of your ground, neither
shall the vineyard be barren in the field, sayeth the Lord of hosts:
In so much that all people shall say, that yee be blessed, for ye
shall be a plenteous land, sayeth the Lord of hosts.
Ye speak hard words against me, sayeth the Lord. And yet ye
say: What have we spoken against thee? Ye have said.
It is lost labor, to serve God? What profit have we for
keeping his commandments, and for walking humbly before the Lord of
hosts? Therefore may we say, that the proud are happy, and that they
which deal with ungodliness, are set up: for they temp God and yet
escape.
But they that fear God, say thus one to another: the Lord
considereth and heareth it. Yee it is before him a memorial book,
written for such as fear the Lord, and remember his name. And in the
day that I will make ( sayeth the Lord of hosts ) they shall be mine
own possession: and I will favor them, like as a man favoreth his
own son, that doth him service. Turn you therefore, and consider
what difference is between the righteous and the ungodly: between
him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.
For mark, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven: and all
the proud, yee and all such as do wickedness, shall be straw: and
the day that is for to come, shall burn them up ( sayeth the Lord of
hosts ) so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of righteousness
arise, and health shall be under his wings: ye shall go forth, and
multiply as the fat calves. Ye shall tread down the ungodly: for
they shall be like the ashes under the soles of your feet, in the
day that I shall make, sayeth the Lord of hosts.
Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto
him in Oreb for all Israel, with the statutes and ordinances.
Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet: before the coming of the
day of the great and fearful Lord. He shall turn the hearts of the
fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their
fathers, that I come not and smite the earth with cursing.
*advoutry: prefix "a"
meaning not or without, devout: devotion; plain hearted to God,
being devoted to something or some one else. see James 2 for
adultery
*penury= extreme want *forte = loud and forceful excelling of ones
self
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