1 Now this commandment is for you, priests.
2 Unless you listen, unless you set your heart on giving glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will send the curse among you and turn your blessings into curses; in fact, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.
3 See, I am going to rebuke your offspring; I will smear dung on your faces, the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.
4 Then you will realize that it was I who sent you this commandment, so that my covenant with Levi might endure, says the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him so that he would fear; and he did fear me and stood in awe of my name.
6 The law of truth was on his tongue, and nothing crooked was found on his lips; he walked with me in peace and integrity and brought many back from iniquity.
7 A priest's lips ought to safeguard knowledge, and people ought to look for the law from his mouth, since he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But you have left the way; by your teaching of the law you have tripped up many; you have ruined the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
9 So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, since you have not kept my ways and you play favorites in the law.
10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with each other, each with his brother, and profane the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has broken faith; a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the LORD's holy place, which he loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any man who does this, whoever he may be, even one who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts.
13 Here is another thing you do: you flood the LORD's altar with tears, crying and moaning, because he no longer pays attention to the offering or receives it gladly from your hands.
14 And you ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD has stood witness between you and the wife you married in your youth, whom you have betrayed, though she is your partner and the wife of your covenant.
15 Did he not make them one, with a remnant of the Spirit in him? And why one? He was seeking offspring from God. So take care in your spirit, and let no one betray the wife of his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and the one who covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take care in your spirit, and do not break faith.
17 You have worn out the LORD with your talk. And you ask, "How have we worn him out?" By saying, "All who do evil are good in the LORD's eyes, and he is pleased with them," or, "Where is the God who judges?"