From: rking164@comcast.net   
      
   1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.   
      
   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!’   
   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.   
      
   “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’   
      
   7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.   
      
   “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’   
      
   “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind   
   animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased   
   animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be   
   pleased with you? Would    
   he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.   
      
   9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your   
   hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.   
      
   10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not   
   light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord   
   Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be   
   great among the    
   nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and   
   pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the   
   nations,” says the Lord Almighty.   
      
   12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and,   
   ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you   
   sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.   
      
   “When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as   
   sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. 14   
   “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to   
   give it, but then sacrifices a    
   blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord   
   Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)