Reciting the Dead Sea Scrolls

 

Malachi

Book of Malachi

Chapter 1

1; The burden of the Word of YAHWEH to Israel by the hand of Malachi:

2; I have loved you, says YAHWEH. But you say, In what way have You loved us? Was not Esau the brother to Jacob? Yet YAHWEH declares, I loved Jacob,

3; and I have hated Esau and have made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness.

4; If Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the ruined places; so says YAHWEH of Hosts: They shall build, but I will tear down. And they shall call them the region of wickedness, and the people whom YAHWEH is enraged with until forever.

5; And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, YAHWEH will be magnified beyond the border of Israel.

6; A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says YAHWEH of Hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, In what have we despised Your name?

7; You are offering defiled food on My altar, and you say, In what have we defiled You? It is in your saying, The table of YAHWEH, it is to be despised.

8; And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you or lift up your face? says YAHWEH of Hosts.

9; And now entreat the face of Elohim, that He favor us. This has been by your hands; will He lift up your faces? says YAHWEH of Hosts.

10; Who is even among you that will shut the doors, and you not kindle fire on My altar in vain? There is no delight to Me in you, says YAHWEH of Hosts. I will not accept a food offering from your hand.

11; For from the rising of the sun to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations, and everywhere incense shall be offered to My name; and a pure food offering; for My name shall be great among the nations, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

12; But you are profaning it when you say, The table of YAHWEH, it is polluted; and its fruit, His food is to be despicable.

13; And you have said, Behold, what weariness! And you have sniffed at it, says YAHWEH of Hosts. And you bring the stolen, and the lame, and the sick; and you bring the grain offering. Should I accept it from your hand? says YAHWEH.

14; But cursed be a deceiver and there is a male in his flock, and he vows it, but he sacrifices a blemished one to YAHWEH. For I am a great King, says YAHWEH of Hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.

 

Chapter 2

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

2; If you will not hear, and if you will not set it on your heart to give glory to My name, says YAHWEH 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 setting it on your heart.

3; Behold, I am rebuking your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will lift you up to it.

4; And you shall know that I have sent this command to you, to be My covenant with Levi, says YAHWEH 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 is put in awe before My name.

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

7; For the lips of the priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek the Torah from his mouth; for he is the messenger of YAHWEH of Hosts.

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

9; So I have also made you despised and low to all the people, just as you have not kept My ways, but are lifting up faces in the Torah.

10; Is there not one father to us all? Has not one El created us united? Why do we act deceitfully, each man with his brother, to profane 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 holy place of YAHWEH, which He loves and has married a daughter of a heathen god.

12; YAHWEH will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does it, he waking and answering, or offering a grain offering to YAHWEH of Hosts.

13; And this is a second thing you have done: covering the altar of YAHWEH with tears, with weeping and groaning; yet not facing toward the grain offering, and taking it with delight from your hand.

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

15; And has He not made you one? Yet the remainder of the Spirit is in him. And what of the one? He was seeking a seed of Elohim. Then guard your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.

16; YAHWEH, the Elohim of Israel, says, He hates divorce, and to cover with violence on his garment, says YAHWEH of Hosts. Then guard your spirit and do not act treacherously.

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

 

Chapter 3

1; Behold, I am sending My messenger, and He will clear the way before Me. And the Master whom you are seeking shall suddenly come to His sanctuary, even the Messenger of the Covenant, in whom You delight. Behold, He comes, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

2; But who can endure the day of His coming? And who will be standing when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

3; And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold and like silver, that they may be presenters of a food offering in righteousness to YAHWEH.

4; Then the food offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to YAHWEH, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5; And I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing to a lie; and against those who extort from the hired laborer's pay; and turning away the widow, and the fatherless, and the foreigner, and not fearing Me, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

6; For I am YAHWEH, I do not change. Because of this, you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.

7; From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says YAHWEH of Hosts. But you say, In what shall we return?

8; Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, In what have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering!

9; You are cursed with a curse, for the nation, all of it ,you are robbing Me,.

10; Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. And test Me now with this, says YAHWEH of Hosts, whether I will not open the windows of the heavens for you and pour out a blessing until there is no sufficiency of room to store it.

11; And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground against you; nor shall your vine miscarry against you in the field, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

12; And all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

13; Your words have been strong against Me, says YAHWEH. Yet you say, What have we spoken against you?

14; You have said, It is vanity to serve Elohim. And, What profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked as mourners before YAHWEH of Hosts?

15; And now we are calling the arrogant blessed. Not only are the doers of wickedness built up, they also test Elohim, and escape.

16; Then those fearing YAHWEH spoke together, each man to his neighbor. And YAHWEH gave attention and heard. And a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for those who feared YAHWEH, and for those esteeming His name.

17; And they shall be Mine, says YAHWEH of Hosts, for the day that I will make up My treasure. And I will pity them as a man has pity on his son who serves him.

18; Then you shall return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves Elohim and him who does not serve Him.

 

Chapter 4

1; For, behold, the day is coming, burning like a fire pot; and all the proud and every doer of wickedness shall be chaff. And the coming day will set them ablaze, says YAHWEH of Hosts, which will not leave root or branches to them.

2; But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise up, and healing will be on His wings. And you shall go out and frisk like calves of the stall.

3; And you shall tread under the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day which I am preparing, says YAHWEH of Hosts.

4; Remember the Torah of My servant Moses which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and judgments.

5; Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of YAHWEH.

6; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, that I not come and strike the earth with utter destruction.