A Warning to the Priests 1 UST Yahweh says,“Now, priests, this command is for you. BSB BSB: “And now this decree is for you, O priests:
2 UST If you do not obey me and make sure that you honor me, I will curse you,” says Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies.“I will even curse the good things I have given you. In fact, I have already started to curse them, because you are not taking seriously what I have told you to do. BSB BSB: If 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 among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.
3 UST I am ready to punish you by keeping you from having good harvests. You will be disgraced, as if I had spread animal waste on your faces, the waste from the animals you sacrifice at festivals. People will consider you as worthless as that waste! BSB BSB: Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.
4 UST Then you will know that I gave you this command so that my agreement with the priests, the descendants of Levi, will continue.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. BSB BSB: Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts.
5 UST “I made a peaceful and life- giving agreement with them because they revered me, and they revered me greatly. BSB BSB: “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.
6 UST They taught the people what was true, and they did not say things that were wrong. They lived peacefully and honestly, the way I wanted them to, and they helped many people stop doing bad things. BSB BSB: True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.
7 UST After all, a priest should teach people how to know God better. People should learn from what the priest says, because he brings messages from me, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. BSB BSB: For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
8 UST But you priests have stopped living the way I want. Your teaching has caused many people to do wrong things. You have failed to keep the agreement I made with the Levite priests,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. BSB BSB: But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.
9 UST “So I have made people disrespect you and I have humiliated you before all the people. This is because you have not lived the way I want people to live. You have also not treated everyone fairly when you have applied my laws.” BSB BSB: “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Judah’s Unfaithfulness 10 UST In a sense, we all have the same father, since the same God created each of us. So we should not break our promises to each other. If we do, we dishonor the agreement God made with our ancestors. BSB BSB: Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
11 UST The people of Judah have not been faithful to God. They have done terrible things in Israel and Jerusalem. They have dishonored the temple that Yahweh loves. They are worshiping foreign gods instead of Yahweh. BSB BSB: Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
12 UST I hope Yahweh will remove from among the people of Israel every single person who does this, even if they bring offerings to Yahweh, who is the commander of the heavenly armies. BSB BSB: As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware—even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.
13 UST This is another thing you do: When you come to offer sacrifices at Yahweh’ s altar, you weep bitterly. You cry and groan because Yahweh no longer accepts your offerings. BSB BSB: And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.
14 UST You may wonder what I mean and ask,“Why does he not accept them?” It is because Yahweh knows that you have not been faithful to the wife you married as a young man. You did this even though she was your partner and you promised to be her husband. BSB BSB: Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
15 UST God has united husbands and wives so that they are one, and he has made their marriage a spiritual relationship. God made them one because he wants them to have children who are faithful to him. So be careful. Do not break your promise to the wife you married when you were a young man. BSB BSB: Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 UST Yahweh, the God of Israel, says,“I hate divorce. I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to your wife. So be careful. Do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. BSB BSB: “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.
17 UST Yahweh is tired of hearing what you have been saying. You may wonder what I mean and ask,“How have we made him tired?” You have made him tired by saying,“Yahweh thinks that people who do evil things are actually good. He is happy with them.” Yahweh is also tired of hearing you say,“God is not being fair!” BSB BSB: You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”