1“And now, O you priests, this warning is for you. 2If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart, to honor My name”, says the LORD of hosts, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have cursed them already, because you have not taken what I say to heart. 3Because of you, I will rebuke your descendants, and smear the dung of your offerings upon your faces; and you shall be carted away with it. 4And you shall know that I have sent this warning to you, so that My covenant with Levi might continue.”, says the LORD Almighty. 5“My covenant with Levi and his descendants was a covenant of life and peace; and life and peace is what I gave to him for the reverence with which he stood in awe of Me, and of My name. 6The instruction of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and equity, and he turned many away from sin. 7For words from the lips of priests should preserve knowledge of God, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. 8But you priests have departed from the way of Levi; you have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant of Levi”, says the LORD of hosts. 9“Therefore, I have also humiliated you and made you despised before all the people, because you have not followed My ways, but have shown partiality in applying the law.” 10Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us all? Why do we deal treacherously with our brothers, by violating the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah has been unfaithful, and done detestable things in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has desecrated the holy sanctuary of the LORD which He loved, by marrying women who worship foreign gods. 12May the LORD cut off from the descendants of Jacob any man that does this and yet brings an offering unto the LORD of hosts. 13And this is another thing you have done: flooding the altar of the LORD with tears. You weep and cry because He no longer regards (looks with favor upon) the offering from your hand. 14And yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness to the vows between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have been unfaithful to; though she remains your companion, and the wife of your marriage covenant. 15And did He not make you one? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And why one? That He might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that He hates divorce. “The one who divorces his faithful wife does violence to the one he should protect,” says the LORD Almighty. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously. The “He” in verse 11 may refer to God, or it could conceivably refer to Judah before he became back-slidden. Some translations render the phrase as “which He loves” (present tense), as a reference to the LORD and thus the capitalized “Royal purple” font would apply to the pronoun “He.” But others render the phrase as “which he loved” (past tense) as a reference to back-slidden Judah that once loved the sanctuary of the LORD, in which case normal black font would apply. There is also a question as to whom the 2nd occurrence of the pronoun “he” in verse 15 refers. (The first He as well as Him refer to God.) Most scholars regard it as also referring to God Who desires holy seed from the marriage union. Some, however, take it as referring to the covenant-keeping man – possibly the patriarch, Abraham. 17You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By your saying, “Everyone that does evil is good in the eyes of the LORD, and He is pleased with them.” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
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