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The Prophecy
of Malachias 2
And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you.
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.
Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and I will
scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities,
and it shall take you away with it.
And you shall know that I sent you this commandment,
that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord
of hosts.
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.
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.
For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and
they shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is
the angel of the Lord of hosts.
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.
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.
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?
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.
The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both
the master, and the scholar, out of the tabernacles
of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering to the Lord
of hosts.
And this again have you done, you have covered the altar
of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and bellowing,
so that I have no more a regard to sacrifice, neither
do I accept any atonement at your hands.
And you have said: For what cause? Because the Lord
hath been witness between thee, and the wife of thy
youth, whom thou hast despised: yet she was thy partner,
and the wife of thy covenant.
Did not one make her, and she is the residue of his
spirit? And what doth one seek, but the seed of God?
Keep then your spirit, and despise not the wife of thy
youth.
When thou shalt hate her put her away, saith the Lord
the God of Israel: but iniquity shall cover his garment,
saith the Lord of hosts, keep your spirit, and despise
not.
You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said:
Wherein have we wearied him? In that you say: Every
one that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord,
and such please him: or surely where is the God of judgment?
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