1And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you. 2If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says Yehovah of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart. 3Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you shall be taken away with it. 4And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi, says Yehovah of hosts. 5My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name. 6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yehovah of hosts. 8But you have turned aside out of the way; you have caused many to stumble in the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yehovah of hosts. 9Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, but have shown partiality in the law. 10Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yehovah which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12Yehovah will cut off, from the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yehovah of hosts. 13And this again you do: you cover the altar of Yehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, so that he no longer regards the offering, nor receives it with good will from your hand. 14Yet you say, Why? Because Yehovah has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. 15And did he not make one, although he had the remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16For I hate divorce, says Yehovah, the God of Israel, and him who covers his garment with violence, says Yehovah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously. 17You have wearied Yehovah with your words. Yet you say, How have we wearied him? In that you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yehovah, and he delights in them; or where is the God of justice?