Write about the Old Testament of Unit 3

Malachi Selected Passages (NRSV)

1:10-12 The Lord wishes they would close down the temple instead of offering sacrifices which take His name in vain. The rest of the nations are actually better in this regard!

10 Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple[c] doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and the food for it[d] may be despised.

1:13 The Lord rejects the sacrifices because they have been taken by violence.

13 “What a weariness this is,” you say, and you sniff at me,[e] says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord.

2:1-9 The priests as religion leaders have perverted their calling, which is to give instruction for well-being, speaking as a messenger for the Lord.

1And now, O priests, this command is for you.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.

2:10 The Lord created all peoples, so all the peoples of the earth have one “Father,” that is, all are one family. So discriminating against foreigners perverts the covenant.

10 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

2:13-16 The Lord is refusing to accept their sacrifices because of those forced divorces of wives who do not have a “pure” genealogy. They constitute infidelity to the wives and to God. They are to be labeled specifically as hamas, that is, violence (v. 16). (They certainly were, when we consider the vulnerability of women and children on the street without household protection in that time and place.)

13 And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. 14 You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did not one God make her?[d] Both flesh and spirit are his.[e] And what does the one God[f] desire? Godly offspring [that is, results]. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. 16 For I hate/reject these divorces, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.