The Father Rebukes His Priests
2 1 Now, priests, this command is for you.
2 If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Father of heaven's armies, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not take it to heart. 3 I am about to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread manure upon your faces — the manure of your feasts — and you will be swept away with it. 4 Then you will know that I sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi might stand, says the Father of heaven's armies. 5 My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him to be held with reverence; and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many away from sin. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Father of heaven's armies. 8 But you have turned aside from the way; you have made many stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Father of heaven's armies. 9 So I, in turn, have made you despised and humbled before all the people, because you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.
Faithless to One Another and to the Father
10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one Father create us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy place of our Father, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May our Father cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this — whoever he may be — even though he brings an offering to the Father of heaven's armies. a a v12 'Tents of Jacob' means the whole community of Israel.
13 And this is a second thing you do: you cover the altar of our Father with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer pays attention to the offering or accepts it gladly from your hand. 14 But you ask, "Why?" Because our Father was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Didn't the Father make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? God-fearing children from your union. So guard yourself in your spirit, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.
16 "For I hate divorce," says our Father, the Father of Israel, "and the one who stains his garment with violence," says the Father of heaven's armies. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.
17 You have wearied our Father with your words. But you ask, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in his sight, and in them he delights" — or by asking, "Where is the Father of justice?"