The Lord Rebukes the Priests
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"And now, O a priests, this commandment is for you.
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b If you will not hear,
And if you will not take it to heart,
To give glory to My name,"
Says the LORD of hosts,
"I will send a curse upon you,
And I will curse your blessings.
Yes, I have cursed them c already,
Because you do not take it to heart.
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"Behold, I will rebuke your descendants
And spread d refuse on your faces,
The refuse of your solemn feasts;
And one will e take you away with it.
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Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you,
That My covenant with Levi may continue,"
Says the LORD of hosts.
5
"My f covenant was with him, one of life and peace,
And I gave them to him g that he might fear Me;
So he feared Me
And was reverent before My name.
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h The law of truth was in his mouth,
And injustice was not found on his lips.
He walked with Me in peace and equity,
And i turned many away from iniquity.
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"For j the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,
And people should seek the law from his mouth;
k For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
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But you have departed from the way;
You l have caused many to stumble at the law.
m You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,"
Says the LORD of hosts.
9
"Therefore n I also have made you contemptible and base
Before all the people,
Because you have not kept My ways
But have shown o partiality in the law."
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Cross References
Malachi 1:6
"A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'
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Cross References
Leviticus 26:14
But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments.
Leviticus 26:15
And if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant.
Deuteronomy 28:15
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
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Cross References
Malachi 3:9
You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.
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Cross References
Exodus 29:14
But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
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Cross References
1 Kings 14:10
Therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone.
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Cross References
Numbers 25:12
Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace.
Ezekiel 34:25
I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 33:9
Who says of his father and mother, 'I have not seen them'; Nor did he acknowledge his brothers, Or know his own children; For they have observed Your word And kept Your covenant.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 33:10
They shall teach Jacob Your judgments, And Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You, And a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 23:22
But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.
James 5:20
Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
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Cross References
Numbers 27:21
"He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the LORD for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him - all the congregation."
Deuteronomy 17:8 - 11
If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
Jeremiah 18:18
Then they said, "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
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Cross References
Galatians 4:14
And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 18:15
Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway.
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Cross References
Numbers 25:12
Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace.
Numbers 25:13
'and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'"
Nehemiah 13:29
Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
Ezekiel 44:10
And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.
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Cross References
1 Samuel 2:30
Therefore the LORD God of Israel says: 'I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.' But now the LORD says: 'Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 1:17
'You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.'
Micah 3:11
Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No harm can come upon us.
1 Timothy 5:21
I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.