CHAPTER 2

1 And not to you is this command, O priests;

2 If ye will not hear not lay it to heart, To give glory to my name, Saith Jehovah of hosts, I will send on you a curse, And will curse your blessings; Yea, I have cursed them, Because ye lay it not to heart.

3 Behold, I will destroy your seed And scatter dung on your faces, The dung of your solemn feasts; And it shall take you to itself: And ye shall know,

4 That I have sent to you this command, That my covenant may be with Levi, Saith Jehovah of hosts.

5 My covenant with him was that of life and peace; And I gave him fear, and he feared me, And before my name he was humble; (524)

6 The law of truth was in his mouth, And iniquity was not found in his lips; In peace and uprightness he walked before me, And many he restored from iniquity.

7 Verily the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, And the law should they seek from his mouth, For the messenger of Jehovah of hosts is he:

8 But ye have departed from the way, To stumble have ye made many in the law; Ye have therefore violated the covenant of Levi, Saith Jehovah of hosts:

9 Therefore have I also made you Contemptible and base before all the people, As ye have not kept my ways And had respect of persons in the law.

10 Is there not one father to us all? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal falsely, every one with his brother? So as to pollute the covenant of our fathers.

11 Perfidiously has Judah acted, And abomination has been done In Israel and in Jerusalem; For polluted hath Judah (544) The holiness of Jehovah, which he loved, And hath married the daughter of another god.

12 Cut off will Jehovah The man who doeth this, The prompter and the respondent, From the tabernacles of Jacob; And him who bringeth an oblation to Jehovah of hosts.

13 And this have ye in the second place done -- Covering with tears the altar of Jehovah, With weeping and with wailing, Because there is no more regard to the offering, And no receiving of what is acceptable from you hand.

14 And ye have said, Why is this? Because Jehovah has been witness Between thee and the wife of thy youth; With whom thou hast dealt unfaithfully, When yet she is thy consort, And the wife of thy covenant.

15 But did he not make one? And had he not an exuberance of spirit? And why one? That he might seek [secure] good seed. Therefore watch over your spirit; And with the wife of thy youth Deal not thou unfaithfully.

16 For if thou hatest, dismiss, Saith Jehovah, God of Israel; For he covers violence with his garment, Saith Jehovah of hosts: Therefore watch over you spirit, And deal not unfaithfully.

17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words; But ye have said, How have we wearied him? By saying, Whosoever doeth evil Is acceptable in the eyes of Jehovah, And in them he takes delight; Or, Where is the God of judgment?