A Warning to the Priests

[“] And now this decree is for you, O priests:

2 

If you do not listen, and if you do not take [it] to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts,“I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

3 

Behold, I will rebuke your descendants,[fn] and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

4 

Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts. 5 “My covenant with him was [one] of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

6 

True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

8 

But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts. 9 “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

10