Et nunc ad vos mandatum hoc, o sacerdotes.

And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you.

It is for you, priests, to see that this law of mine is obeyed.

Si nolueritis audire, et si nolueritis ponere super cor, ut detis gloriam nomini meo, ait Dominus exercituum, mittam in vos egestatem, et maledicam benedictionibus vestris, et maledicam illis, quoniam non posuistis super cor.

If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart.

Give me neither heed nor hearing, says the Lord of hosts, let my name go unhonoured, and with sore distress I will visit you; falls my curse on all the blessings you enjoy, falls my curse …, to the punishing of your heedlessness.

Ecce ego projiciam vobis brachium, et dispergam super vultum vestrum stercus solemnitatum vestrarum, et assumet vos secum.

Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it.

Arm of yours I will strike motionless, bury your faces in dung, ay, the dung of your own sacrifices, and to the dung-pit you shall go.

Et scietis quia misi ad vos mandatum istud, ut esset pactum meum cum Levi, dicit Dominus exercituum.

And you shall know that I sent you this commandment, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.

So you shall learn your lesson; my law I gave you, says the Lord of hosts, in token of my covenant with Levi’s family.

Pactum meum fuit cum eo vitæ et pacis: et dedi ei timorem, et timuit me, et a facie nominis mei pavebat.

My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave him fear: and he feared me, and he was afraid before my name.

Live they should and thrive, but the fear of me I enjoined upon them; none but should fear, and hold my name in reverence.

Lex veritatis fuit in ore ejus, et iniquitas non est inventa in labiis ejus: in pace et in æquitate ambulavit mecum, et multos avertit ab iniquitate.

The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace, and in equity, and turned many away from iniquity.

Faithfully they handed on tradition, the lie never on their lips; safe and straight was the path they trod at my side, and kept many from wrong-doing.

Labia enim sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et legem requirent ex ore ejus, quia angelus Domini exercituum est.

For the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.

No utterance like a priest’s for learning; from no other lips men will expect true guidance; is he not a messenger to them from the Lord of hosts?

Vos autem recessistis de via, et scandalizastis plurimos in lege: irritum fecistis pactum Levi, dicit Dominus exercituum.

But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law: you have made void the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.

That path you have forsaken; through your ill teaching, how many a foothold lost! Nay, says the Lord of hosts, you have annulled my covenant with Levi altogether.

Propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles, et humiles omnibus populis, sicut non servastis vias meas, et accepistis faciem in lege.

Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all people, as you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law.

What wonder if I have made you a laughing-stock, a thing contemptible in all men’s sight, priests that so ill kept my command, gave award so partially?

Numquid non pater unus omnium nostrum? numquid non Deus unus creavit nos? quare ergo despicit unusquisque nostrum fratrem suum, violans pactum patrum nostrorum?

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why then doth every one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers?

Have we not all one Father, did not one God create us all? No room, then, for brother to despise brother, and unmake the covenant by which our fathers lived.

Transgressus est Juda, et abominatio facta est in Israël et in Jerusalem, quia contaminavit Juda sanctificationem Domini, quam dilexit, et habuit filiam dei alieni.

Juda hath transgressed, and abomination hath been committed in Israel, and in Jerusalem: for Juda hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange God.

Here is great wrong in Juda, here are foul deeds done by Israel and Jerusalem! Juda, that was once content to be set apart for the Lord, has profaned that holy estate, has taken wives that worship a god he knew not.

Disperdet Dominus virum qui fecerit hoc, magistrum et discipulum, de tabernaculis Jacob, et offerentem munus Domino exercituum.

The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both the master, and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering to the Lord of hosts.

Doer of such a deed, set he or followed the ill example, shall be lost to the dwelling-place of Jacob, for all his offerings made to the Lord of hosts.

Et hoc rursum fecistis: operiebatis lacrimis altare Domini, fletu et mugitu, ita ut non respiciam ultra ad sacrificium, nec accipiam placabile quid de manu vestra.

And this again have you done, you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and bellowing, so that I have no more a regard to sacrifice, neither do I accept any atonement at your hands.

And anon, weeping and wailing, you drench the Lord’s altar with your tears! What marvel if I heed your sacrifices no more, gift of yours is none can appease me?

Et dixistis: Quam ob causam? Quia Dominus testificatus est inter te et uxorem pubertatis tuæ, quam tu despexisti: et hæc particeps tua, et uxor fœderis tui.

And you have said: For what cause? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee, and the wife of thy youth, whom thou hast despised: yet she was thy partner, and the wife of thy covenant.

And the reason of it? Because the Lord bears witness to her wrongs, that wife of thy manhood’s age, whom now thou spurnest, thy partner, thy covenanted bride!

Nonne unus fecit, et residuum spiritus ejus est? et quid unus quærit, nisi semen Dei? custodite ergo spiritum vestrum, et uxorem adolescentiæ tuæ noli despicere.

Did not one make her, and she is the residue of his spirit? And what dothone seek, but the seed of God? Keep then your spirit, and despise not the wife of thy youth.

Yet doer of this is the same man as ever, the will of him is unchanged; he asks nothing better, now as before, than to breed a God-fearing race; to that will, men of Juda, keep true. Spurn her not, the wife of thy manhood’s age;

Cum odio habueris, dimitte, dicit Dominus Deus Israël: operiet autem iniquitas vestimentum ejus, dicit Dominus exercituum. Custodite spiritum vestrum, et nolite despicere.

When thou shalt hate her put her away, saith the Lord the God of Israel: but iniquity shalt cover his garment, saith the Lord of hosts, keep your spirit, and despise not.

what though the God of Israel gives thee leave to send her away if she suits thee ill? Garment of her, says the Lord of hosts, is yet stained with the wrong thou didst her. Will of thine forgo not, wife of thine spurn not.

Laborare fecistis Dominum in sermonibus vestris, et dixistis: In quo eum fecimus laborare? In eo quod dicitis: Omnis qui facit malum bonus est in conspectu Domini, et tales ei placent: aut certe ubi est Deus judicii?

You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said: Wherein have we wearied him? In that you say: Every one that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or surely where is the God of judgment?

Oh, but the Lord is aweary of your doings! And little wonder, when you think so amiss of him; telling yourselves, Foul is fair in the Lord’s sight, and wrong-doing well likes him; God that judges us is none.