Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between ¹  the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Do we not all have one father? ¹  Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?

“A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects ¹  his master. If I am your ²  father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The Lord who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply, ‘How have we made light of your name?’

No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ¹  What did our ancestor ²  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. ³ 

“They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ¹  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ¹  instruction.”

“But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹  despicable.

But now plead for God’s favor ¹  that he might be gracious to us. ²  “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

May the Lord cut off from the community ¹  of Jacob every last person who does this, ²  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

“I am about to send my messenger, ¹  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ²  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ³  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

“Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ¹  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.