Study Desk

"Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

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

"Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with violence!' says Yahweh of Hosts. "Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you don't deal treacherously.

"But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like launderer's soap;

"For I, Yahweh, don't change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.

Bring the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.

I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field," says Yahweh of Hosts.

"All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says Yahweh of Hosts.

Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.

"For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up," says Yahweh of Hosts, "that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make," says Yahweh of Hosts.

"Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name JESUS, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins."

"Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him."

They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet,

'You Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are in no way least among the princes of Judah: For out of you shall come forth a governor, Who shall shepherd my people, Israel'".