1. An oracle: The word of Adonai to Israel by Malachi.
2. “I loved you,” says Adonai. But you say: “How have you loved us?” “Was Esau not Jacob’s brother?” —it is the declaration of Adonai— “Yet I loved Jacob
3. and Esau I hated. I made his hills a wasteland and gave his inheritance to jackals of the wilderness.”
4. For Edom may say, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and rebuild the ruins.” Thus Adonai-Tzva’ot says: “They may rebuild but I will tear down. They will be called a wicked territory, the people Adonai denounced forever.
5. So you will see, and you will say: ‘May Adonai be magnified beyond the border of Israel!’”
6. “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. So if I am Father, where is My honor? If I am Master, where is My reverence?”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“you, kohanim who despise My Name!” But you say, “How did we despise Your Name?”