From: rking164@comcast.net   
      
   1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.[a]   
      
   Israel Doubts God’s Love   
   2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.   
      
   “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’   
      
   “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved   
   Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a   
   wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”   
      
   4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”   
      
   But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will   
   demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath   
   of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the   
   Lord—even beyond the    
   borders of Israel!’   
      
   Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices   
   6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where   
   is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says   
   the Lord Almighty.   
      
   “It is you priests who show contempt for my name.   
      
   Prophecy Against the South   
   45 The word of the Lord came to me: 46 “Son of man, set your face toward the   
   south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the   
   southland. 47 Say to the southern forest: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This   
   is what the Sovereign Lord    
   says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both   
   green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from   
   south to north will be scorched by it. 48 Everyone will see that I the Lord   
   have kindled it; it will    
   not be quenched.’”   
      
   49 Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just   
   telling parables?’   
      
   Babylon as God’s Sword of Judgment   
   21 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against   
   Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of   
   Israel 3 and say to her: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am against you. I   
   will draw my sword from its    
   sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. 4 Because I am   
   going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword will be unsheathed   
   against everyone from south to north. 5 Then all people will know that I the   
   Lord have drawn my sword    
   from its sheath; it will not return again.’   
      
   6 “Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and   
   bitter grief. 7 And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall   
   say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt with fear   
   and every hand go limp;    
   every spirit will become faint and every leg will be wet with urine.’ It is   
   coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord.”   
   8 The word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This   
   is what the Lord says:   
      
   “‘A sword, a sword,   
       sharpened and polished—   
   10 sharpened for the slaughter,   
       polished to flash like lightning!   
      
   “‘Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my royal son? The sword despises   
   every such stick.   
      
   11 “‘The sword is appointed to be polished,   
       to be grasped with the hand;   
   it is sharpened and polished,   
       made ready for the hand of the slayer.   
   12 Cry out and wail, son of man,   
       for it is against my people;   
       it is against all the princes of Israel.   
   They are thrown to the sword   
       along with my people.   
   Therefore beat your breast.   
      
   13 “‘Testing will surely come. And what if even the scepter, which the   
   sword despises, does not continue? declares the Sovereign Lord.’   
      
   14 “So then, son of man, prophesy   
       and strike your hands together.   
   Let the sword strike twice,   
       even three times.   
   It is a sword for slaughter—   
       a sword for great slaughter,   
       closing in on them from every side.   
   15 So that hearts may melt with fear   
       and the fallen be many,   
   I have stationed the sword for slaughter[b]   
       at all their gates.   
   Look! It is forged to strike like lightning,   
       it is grasped for slaughter.   
   16 Slash to the right, you sword,   
       then to the left,   
       wherever your blade is turned.   
   17 I too will strike my hands together,   
       and my wrath will subside.   
   I the Lord have spoken.”   
      
   18 The word of the Lord came to me: 19 “Son of man, mark out two roads for   
   the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country.   
   Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city. 20 Mark out one road   
   for the sword to    
   come against Rabbah of the Ammonites and another against Judah and fortified   
   Jerusalem. 21 For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at   
   the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots with arrows,   
   he will consult his    
   idols, he will examine the liver. 22 Into his right hand will come the lot for   
   Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to give the command to   
   slaughter, to sound the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates,   
   to build a ramp and to    
   erect siege works. 23 It will seem like a false omen to those who have sworn   
   allegiance to him, but he will remind them of their guilt and take them   
   captive.   
      
   24 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you people   
   have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in   
   all that you do—because you have done this, you will be taken captive.   
      
   25 “‘You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose   
   time of punishment has reached its climax, 26 this is what the Sovereign Lord   
   says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The   
   lowly will be exalted and    
   the exalted will be brought low. 27 A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The   
   crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come;   
   to him I will give it.’   
      
   28 “And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign   
   Lord says about the Ammonites and their insults:   
      
   “‘A sword, a sword,   
       drawn for the slaughter,   
   polished to consume   
       and to flash like lightning!   
   29 Despite false visions concerning you   
       and lying divinations about you,   
   it will be laid on the necks   
       of the wicked who are to be slain,   
   whose day has come,   
       whose time of punishment has reached its climax.   
      
   30 “‘Let the sword return to its sheath.   
       In the place where you were created,   
   in the land of your ancestry,   
       I will judge you.   
   31 I will pour out my wrath on you   
       and breathe out my fiery anger against you;   
   I will deliver you into the hands of brutal men,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)