4. Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning so that my covenant with the Levites can continue,” says the lord of Heaven’s Armies.
5. “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name.
6. They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin.
7. “The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the lord of Heaven’s Armies.
8. But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites,” says the lord of Heaven’s Armies.
9. “So I have made you despised and humiliated in the eyes of all the people. For you have not obeyed me but have shown favoritism in the way you carry out my instructions.”
10. Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?
11. Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.
12. May the lord cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the lord of Heaven’s Armies.