¹And now, this commandment is for you, O priests. ²And if you do not listen, and if you do not lay it to heart, to give honour to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed, I have already cursed them, for you are not laying this to heart. ³I am about to rebuke your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces – the dung of your feasts – and you will be taken away to it. ⁴And you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. ⁵My covenant was with him, life and peace, and I gave them to him as a matter of fear, so that he would fear me, and so that he would be put in awe, on account of my name. ⁶There was a law of truth in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and he recovered many from iniquity. ⁷For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek the law from his pronouncements, for he is the messenger from the Lord of hosts. ⁸But you have departed from the way, you have caused many to stumble in the law, and you have perverted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. ⁹So I too will make you despised and lowly regarded by all the people, according as you do not guard my ways, and you show partiality in administering the law.” ¹⁰Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why do we deal faithlessly one to his brother, so violating the covenant of our fathers? ¹¹Judah has been treacherous, and an abomination has been perpetrated in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holiness, in that he loved and married the daughter of a strange god. ¹²May the Lord cut off any man who does this, whether on guard or whether answering a watchword challenge from the tents of Jacob, even if he brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. ¹³And this second thing you do (while covering the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning), so that he no longer respects the offering, to receive it with delight from your hands. ¹⁴And yet you say, “Why?” Because the Lord testifies the case between you and the wife of your youth, that you dealt treacherously with her, but she was your companion, and your wife by your covenant. ¹⁵And did he not make you one? And he has the residue of the spirit. And why one? He is seeking a seed of God, so you must be on guard in your spirit, and do not deal faithlessly with the wife of your youth. ¹⁶“For the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, as one covers up violence with one's clothes, says the Lord of hosts, so be on your guard in your spirit, and do not deal faithlessly.” ¹⁷You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, “In what way have we wearied him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does wrong is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them”, or, “Where is the God of judgment?”