bible in basic english - old testament - malachi

7/29/2019 Bible in Basic English - Old Testament - Malachi

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T H E B O O K O F

M A L A C H I

CHAPTER 11 The word of the Lord to Is-

rael by Malachi.2 You have been loved by

me, says the Lord. But yousay, Where was your love forus? Was not Esau Jacobsbrother? says the Lord: but Ja-cob was loved by me,3 And Esau was hated, and I

sent destruction on his moun-

tains, and gave his heritageto the beasts o f the wasteland.4 Though Edom says, We are

crushed down but we willcome back, bui lding up thewaste places; this is what theLord of armies has said: Theymay put up bui ld ings, but Iwil l have them pulled down;and they wil l be named Theland of evi l-doing, and Thepeople against whom the Lordkeeps his wrath for ever.5 And your eyes wil l see it;

and you wil l say, The Lord isgreat even outside the limitsof Israel.6 A son gives honour to his

father, and a servant has fearof his master: i f then I am afather, where is my honour?and if I am a master, where isthe fear of me? says the Lordof armies to you, O priests,who give no value to myname. And you say, How havewe not g iven value to yourname?

7 You put unclean bread onmy altar. And you say, Howhave we made it unclean? Byyour saying, The table of theLord is of no value.8 And when you give what is

bl ind for an offering, it is noevil! and when you give whatis damaged and i ll , i t is noevil! Give it now to your ruler;wil l he be pleased with you,

or will you have his approval?says the Lord of armies.9 And now, make request for

the grace of God so that hemay have mercy on us: thishas been your doing: wil l hegive his approval to any of you? says the Lord of armies.10 If on ly there was one

among you who would seethat the doors were shut, sothat you might not put a lightto the fi re on my a ltar fornothing! I have no pleasure inyou, says the Lord of armies,and I will not take an offeringfrom your hands.11 For, from the coming up

of the sun ti l l its going down,my name is great among theGentiles; and in every placethe smell of burning flesh isof fered to my name, and aclean offering: for my name isgreat among the Genti les,says the Lord of armies.12 But you make it unholy by

saying, The Lords table hasbecome unclean, and his food

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is of no value.13 And you say, See, what a

weariness i t is! and you letout your breath at it, says theLord of armies; and you have

given what has been cutabout by beasts, and what isdamaged in i ts feet and i ll ;this is the offering you give:wil l this be pleasing to mefrom your hands? says theLord.14 A curse on the false man

who has a male in his f lock,and takes his oath, and givesto the Lord a damaged thing:

for I am a great King, says theLord of armies, and my nameis to be feared among theGentiles.

CHAPTER 21 And now, O you priests ,

this order is for you.2 If you will not give ear and

take it to heart, to give gloryto my name, says the Lord of

armies, then I wil l send thecurse on you and wi l l put acurse on your blessing: truly,even now I have put a curseon it, because you do not takeit to heart.3 See, I wi l l have your arm

cut off, and will put waste onyour faces, even the wastefrom your feasts; and you willbe taken away with it.

4 And you will be certain thatI have sent this order to you,so that it might be my agree-ment with Levi, says the Lordof armies.5 My agreement with h im

was on my side life andpeace, and I gave them to

him; on his side fear, and hehad fear of me and gave hon-our to my name.6 True teaching was in his

mouth, and no evi l was seen

on his l ips: he was walkingwith me in peace and r ight-eousness, turning numbers ofpeople away from evil-doing.7 For it is right for the

priests l ips to keep knowl-edge, and for men to be wait-ing for the law from hismouth: for he is the servantsent from the Lord of armies.8 But you are turned out of

the way; you have made thelaw hard for numbers of peo-ple; you have made theagreement of Levi of no val-ue, says the Lord of armies.9 And so I have taken away

your honour and made youlow before a ll the people,even as you have not kept myways, and have given nothought to me in using the

law.10 Have we not a l l one fa-

ther? has not one God madeus? why are we, every one ofus, acting falsely to his broth-er, putting shame on theagreement of our fathers?11 Judah has been act ing

falsely, and a disgusting thinghas been done in Jerusalem;for Judah has made unclean

the holy place of the Lordwhich is dear to him, and hastaken as his wife the daugh-ter of a strange god.12 The Lord wil l have the

man who does this cut o ff root and branch out of thetents of Jacob, and him who

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makes an offering to the Lordof armies.13 And this again you do:

covering the altar of the Lordwith weeping and with grief,

so that he gives no morethought to the offering, anddoes not take it with pleasurefrom your hand.14 But you say, For what rea-

son? Because the Lord hasbeen a witness between youand the wi fe of your earlyyears, to whom you havebeen untrue, though she isyour f riend and the wife to

whom you have given yourword.15... So give thought to your

spirit, and let no one be falseto the wife of his early years.16 For I am against the

putting away of a wife, saysthe Lord, the God of Israel,and against him who isclothed with vio lent acts,says the Lord of armies: so

give thought to your spi ri tand do not be fa lse in youracts.17 You have made the Lord

t ired with your words. Andsti ll you say, How have wemade him tired? By your say-ing, Everyone who does evil isgood in the eyes of the Lord,and he has del ight in them;or, Where is God the judge?

CHAPTER 31 See, I am sending my ser-

vant, and he will make readythe way before me; and theLord, whom you are lookingfor, will suddenly come to hisTemple; and the angel of the

agreement, in whom you havedel ight , see, he is coming,says the Lord of armies.2 But by whom may the day

of his coming be faced? and

who may keep his place whenhe is seen? for he is l ike themetal -testers f ire and thecleaners soap.3 He will take his seat, test-

ing and cleaning the sons ofLevi, burning away the evi lfrom them as from gold andsilver; so that they may makeofferings to the Lord in right-eousness.

4 Then the offering of Judahand Jerusalem will be pleasingto the Lord, as in days goneby, and as in past years.5 And I will come near to you

for judging; I will quickly be awitness against the wonder-workers, against those whohave been untrue in marriedl ife, against those who takefa lse oaths ; aga inst those

who keep back from the ser-vant h is payment, and whoare hard on the widow andthe chi ld without a father,who do not give his r ights tothe man from a strange coun-try, and have no fear of me,says the Lord of armies.6 For I am the Lord, I am un-

changed; and so you, O sonsof Jacob, have not been cut

off.7 From the days of your fa-

thers you have been turnedaway from my rules and havenot kept them. Come back tome, and I wi l l come back toyou, says the Lord of armies.But you say, How are we to

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come back?8 Will a man keep back from

God what is r ight? But youhave kept back what is mine.But you say, What have we

kept back from you? Tenthsand offerings.9 You are cursed with a

curse; for you have kept backfrom me what is mine, evenall this nation.10 Let your tenths come into

the store-house so that theremay be food in my house, andput me to the test by doingso, says the Lord of armies,

and see if I do not make thewindows of heaven open andsend down such a blessing onyou that there is no room forit.11 And on your account I will

keep back the locusts fromwasting the fruits of yourland; and the f ru it o f yourvine wil l not be dropped onthe field before its time, says

the Lord of armies12 And you wi ll be named

happy by all nations: for youwill be a land of delight, saysthe Lord of armies.13 Your words have been

strong against me, says theLord. And stil l you say, Whathave we said against you?14 You have said, It is no use

worshipping God: what profit

have we had from keeping hisorders, and going in clothingof sorrow before the Lord ofarmies?15 And now to us the men of

pride seem happy; yes, theevil -doers are doing well;they put God to the test and

are safe.16 Then those in whom was

the fear of the Lord had talktogether: and the Lord gaveear, and it was recorded in a

book to be kept in mind be-fore him, for those who hadthe fear of the Lord and gavethought to his name.17 And they wil l be mine,

says the Lord, in the daywhen I make them my specialproperty; and I will have mer-cy on them as a man has mer-cy on his son who is his ser-vant.

18 Then you wil l again seehow the upright man is differ-ent from the sinner, and theservant of God from him whois not.

CHAPTER 41 For see, the day is coming,

it is burning like an oven; allthe men of pride and al l whodo evi l wil l be dry stems of

grass: and in the day which iscoming they wil l be burnedup, says the Lord of armies,t i l l they have not a root or abranch.2 But to you who give wor-

ship to my name, the sun ofr ighteousness wil l come upwith new life in its wings; andyou wil l go out, playing l ikeyoung oxen full of food.

3 And the evi l-doers wil l becrushed under you, they wil lbe dust under your feet, inthe day when I do my work,says the Lord of armies.4 Keep in mind the law of

Moses, my servant, which Igave him in Horeb for al l Is-

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rael, even the rules and thedecisions.5 See, I am sending you Eli-

jah the prophet before theday of the Lord comes, that

great day, greatly to befeared.6 And by him the hearts of

fathers will be turned to theirchi ldren, and the hearts of children to their fathers; forfear that I may come and putthe earth under a curse.

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bible in basic english - old testament - malachi

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