1 And now, O priests, this command is to you.

2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name, says Jehovah of Hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed, I have cursed it, because you are not laying it to heart.

3 Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it.

4 And you shall know that I have sent this command to you, to be My covenant with Levi, says Jehovah of Hosts.

5 My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him for fear; and he feared Me, and he was in awe before My name.

6 The Law of Truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. In peace and in uprightness he walked with Me, and he turned many away from iniquity.

7 For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of Hosts.

8 But you have turned aside out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the Law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Jehovah of Hosts.

9 So I have also made you despised and low before all the people, just as you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in the Law.

10 Is there not one father to us all? Has not one Mighty God created us? Why do we act deceitfully each man with his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and has done an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

12 Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, waking and answering, or offering a grain offering to Jehovah of Hosts.

13 And this is a second thing you do: covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and crying out; so that He does not regard the grain offering, nor receive it with delight from your hand.

14 Yet you say, For what reason? Because Jehovah has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously; and she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

15 And has He not made them one? Yet the remnant of the Spirit is in him. And why one? He was seeking a seed of God. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.

16 For Jehovah the God of Israel, says that He hates divorce, and to cover violence with one’s garment, says Jehovah of Hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit and do not deal treacherously.

17 You have wearied Jehovah with your words. Yet you say, In what way have we wearied Him? When you say, Every evildoer is good in the eyes of Jehovah, and He delights in them; or, Where is the God of justice?