6 "A son honors a father, and a servant his master. I am a father. Where is my honor? If I am master, where is my respect?" says YHWH of hosts to you priests who despise my name. You say, "How have we despised your name?" By offering on my altar defiled food. You say, "How have we defiled you?" By your saying that the table of YHWH is defileable.  "If you offer for sacrifice something blind, is that not wrong? If you offer something lame or sick, is that not wrong? Offer it to your governor! Would he take it? Would he show you favor?" says YHWH of hosts.

Here the priests are exposed for dishonoring God with inferior animal sacrifices. Damaged animals were not acceptable for sacrifice. Being less valuable, they indicated less than total devotion. The priests kept the better animals for themselves.
Except for a few negative remarks about Edom, Malachi is concerned less with the foreign nations & more with the spiritual condition of the priesthood & the people. He anticipates a judgment day when the wicked would be destroyed & the righteous rewarded.

⁵ Now, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible Day of YHWH comes. ⁶ He will turn the heart of fathers to sons and the heart of sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with utter destruction.

The expectation of the return of Elijah before the judgment day is here stated clearly. This has given rise to traditions of Elijah's return within both Judaism and Christianity. Elijah has a place within the traditional Jewish celebration of the Passover yet today. And New Testament writers viewed the career of John the Baptist as the realization of this expected return of Elijah.
   

The Day of the Lord - [4:1-6] This Day of the Lord is the same day spoken of in Zephaniah 1:14 and Joel 2:31. Although it finds its partial fulfillment in every judgment of God on evil, the primary fulfillment will occur at the second coming of Christ.

Conclusion [4:4-6] The last three verses summarize Malachi's message. Verse 4 exhorts the people to follow the law of Moses. If they had been, they would have been tithing, not intermarrying, not getting divorced, etc. Verses 5-6 give a promise for the future. Verse 5 promises that God would send Elijah the prophet to announce the arrival of Day of the Lord. Verse 6 says that his ministry will be to restore the hearts of the fathers [probably a reference to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] to the children [Israelites living when Elijah comes]. If the children don't respond, God would smite the land with a curse. This prophecy was partially fulfilled by John the Baptist who came to announce the Day of the Lord was at hand and to call the people to repentance. But the nation rejected Jesus and Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.

THE BURDEN of the word of HaShem to Israel by Malachi.

I have loved you, saith HaShem. Yet ye say: 'Wherein hast Thou loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith HaShem; yet I loved Jacob;

3:  But Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.

4: Whereas Edom saith: 'We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places'; thus saith HaShem of hosts: They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall be called The border of wickedness, and The people whom HaShem execrateth for ever.

5: And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say: 'The HaShem is great beyond the border of Israel.'

6: A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is My honour? and if I be a master, where is My fear? saith HaShem of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise My name. And ye say: 'Wherein have we despised Thy name?'

7: Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar. And ye say: 'Wherein have we polluted thee?' In that ye say: 'The table of HaShem is contemptible.

8: And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it no evil! And when ye offer the lame and sick, is it no evil! Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith HaShem of hosts.

9: And now, I pray you, entreat the favour of G-d that He may be gracious unto us! --this hath been of your doing. --will He accept any of your persons? saith HaShem of hosts.

10 :Oh that there were even one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle fire on Mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith HaShem of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

11:  For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name is great among the nations; and in every place offerings are presented unto My name, even pure oblations; for My name is great among the nations, saith HaShem of hosts.

12:  But ye profane it, in that ye say: 'The table of HaShem is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even the food thereof, is contemptible.'

13: Ye say also: 'Behold, what a weariness is it!' and ye have snuffed at it, saith HaShem of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering; should I accept this of your hand? saith HaShem. 

14: But cursed be he that dealeth craftily, whereas he hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the L-rd a blemished thing; for I am a great King, saith HaShem of hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.

MALACHI 2

1: And now, this commandment is for you, O ye priests. 

2: If ye will not hearken, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My name, saith HaShem of hosts, then will I send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I curse them, because ye do not lay it to heart.

3: Behold, I will rebuke the seed for your hurt, & will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your sacrifices; & ye shall be taken away unto it.  

4: Know then that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith HaShem of hosts. 

5:  My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him, and of fear, and he feared Me, and was afraid of My name. 

6:  The law of truth was in his mouth, & unrighteousness was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace & uprightness, & did turn many away from iniquity.

7: For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of HaShem of hosts.

8: But ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith HaShem of hosts.

9: Therefore have I also made you contemptible & base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways, but have had respect of persons in the law.  

10: Have we not all one father? Hath not one G-d created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 

11: Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of HaShem which He loveth, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 

12: May HaShem cut off to the man that doeth this, him that calleth and him that answereth out of the tents of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto HaShem of hosts.

13: And this further ye do: ye cover the altar of HaShem with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that He regardeth not the offering any more, neither receiveth it with good will at your hand.

14: Yet ye say: 'Wherefore?' Because HaShem hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

15: And not one hath done so who had exuberance of spirit! For what seeketh the one? a seed given of G-d. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

16: For I hate putting away, saith HaShem, the G-d of Israel, and him that covereth his garment with violence, saith HaShem of hosts; therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

17: Ye have wearied HaShem with your words. Yet ye say: 'Wherein have we wearied Him?' In that ye say: 'Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of HaShem, and He delighteth in them; or where is the G-d of justice?' 

MALACHI 3

1: Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the L-rd, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh, saith HaShem of hosts. 

2: But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap;

3: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and there shall be they that shall offer unto HaShem offerings in righteousness.

4: Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto HaShem, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

5: And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers; and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith HaShem of hosts.

6: For I HaShem change not; and ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

7: From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith HaShem of hosts. But ye say: 'Wherein shall we return?'

8: Will a man rob G-d? Yet ye rob Me. But ye say: 'Wherein have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and heave-offerings.

9: Ye are cursed with the curse, yet ye rob Me, even this whole nation.

10: Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now herewith, saith HaShem of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be more than sufficiency. 

11: And I will rebuke the devourer for your good, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your land; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith HaShem of hosts. 

12: And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith HaShem of hosts.

13: Your words have been all too strong against Me, saith HaShem. Yet ye say: 'Wherein have we spoken against thee?'

14: Ye have said: 'It is vain to serve G-d; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of HaShem of hosts?

15: And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they try G-d, and are delivered.'

16: Then they that feared HaShem spoke one with another; and HaShem hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared HaShem, and that thought upon His name.

17: And they shall be Mine, saith HaShem of hosts, in the day that I do make, even Mine own treasure; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

18: Then shall ye again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth G-d and him that serveth Him not.

CHRISTIAN VERSION

¹The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ²I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, ³And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. ⁴Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. ⁵And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.