Malachi 1 - Easy To Read Version

¹ A message from God. This message is from the Lord to Israel. God used Malachi to give this message.

² The Lord said, “I love you people.”

³ And I did not accept {\cf2\super [2]} Esau. I destroyed Esau’s hill-country. {\cf2\super [3]} Esau’s country was destroyed, and now only wild dogs {\cf2\super [4]} live there.”

⁴ Maybe the people of Edom will say, “We were destroyed. But we will go back and build our cities again.”

⁵ You people saw these things and you said, “The Lord is great, even outside of Israel!”

⁶ The Lord All-Powerful said, “Children honor their father. Servants honor their masters. I am your Father, so why don’t you honor me? I am your Master, so why don’t you respect me? You priests don’t respect my name.”

⁷ \{The Lord said,\} “You bring unclean {\cf2\super [5]} bread to my altar!”

⁸ You bring blind animals as sacrifices. {\cf2\super [6]} And that is wrong! You bring sick and crippled animals for sacrifices. And that is wrong! Try giving those sick animals as a gift to your governor. Would he accept those sick animals? No! He would not accept those gifts!” The Lord All-Powerful said these things!

⁹ “Priests, you should ask the Lord to be good to us. But he does not listen to you. And it is all your fault.” The Lord All-Powerful said these things.

¹⁰ “Surely, some of you priests could close the temple doors and light the fires correctly. I am not pleased with you. I will not accept your gifts.” The Lord All-Powerful said these things.

¹¹ “People all around the world respect my name. All around the world people bring good gifts to me. They burn good incense {\cf2\super [7]} as a gift to me. Why? Because my name is important to all those people.” The Lord All-Powerful said these things.

¹² “But you people show that you don’t respect my name. You say that the Lord’s table (altar) is unclean. {\cf2\super [8]}

¹³ And you don’t like the food from that table. You smell the food and refuse to eat it. You say it is bad. \{But that is not true.\} Then you bring sick, crippled, and hurt animals to me. You try to give sick animals to me as sacrifices. But I will not accept those sick animals from you.

¹⁴ Some people have good, male animals that they could give as sacrifices. \{But they don’t give those good animals to me.\} Some people bring good animals to me. They promise to give those healthy animals to me. But then they secretly exchange those good animals and they give me sick animals. Bad things will happen to those people! I am the Great King. \{You should respect me!\} People all around the world respect me!” The Lord All-Powerful said those things!