1. What follows is divine revelation. The word of the Lord came to Israel through Malachi:
2. “I have shown love to you,” says the Lord, but you say, “How have you shown love to us?” “Esau was Jacob’s brother,” the Lord explains, “yet I chose Jacob
3. and rejected Esau. I turned Esau’s mountains into a deserted wasteland and gave his territory to the wild jackals.”
4. Edom says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.
5. Your eyes will see it, and then you will say, ‘May the Lord be magnified even beyond the border of Israel!’”
6. “A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects his master. If I am your 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?’