Asɔfoɔ No Animka
1Afei mo asɔfoɔ, saa animka yi wɔ mo. 2Sɛ moantie, sɛ moannyɛ mo adwene sɛ mobɛhyɛ me animuonyam a, mede nnome bɛba mo so, na mɛdane mo nhyira ama ayɛ nnome. Aane, madome mo dada, ɛfiri sɛ monyɛɛ mo adwene sɛ mobɛhyɛ me animuonyam, sɛdeɛ Asafo Awurade seɛ nie.
3Mo enti mɛka mo asefoɔ anim, na mede mo afahyɛ afɔrebɔ mmoa no agyanan bɛpete mo anim, na wɔasoa mo aka ho akɔ. 4Na mobɛhunu sɛ, masoma ma wɔde saa animka yi abrɛ mo sɛdeɛ ɛbɛyɛ a me ne Lewi apam no bɛkɔ so atena hɔ. Sɛdeɛ Asafo Awurade seɛ nie. 5Me ne no yɛɛ apam, nkwa ne asomdwoeɛ apam. Na apam no botaeɛ ne sɛ ɛbɛma Lewi nkwa ne asomdwoeɛ, enti memaa no nkwa ne asomdwoeɛ. 6Nokorɛ nkyerɛkyerɛ firii nʼanom, na wanka nkontomposɛm biara. Ɔne me nantee asomdwoeɛ ne nokorɛdie mu, na ɔmaa bebree danee wɔn ho firii bɔne ho.
7“Ɛsɛ sɛ ɔsɔfoɔ ano kora nimdeɛ. Nnipa hwehwɛ nkyerɛkyerɛ firi ne nkyɛn, ɛfiri sɛ ɔyɛ Asafo Awurade no somafoɔ. 8Nanso moamane afiri ɛkwan no so, na mo nkyerɛkyerɛ ama bebree asuntisunti; moabu me ne Lewi apam no so.” Sɛdeɛ Asafo Awurade seɛ nie. 9“Enti, mama mo anim agu ase na mabrɛ mo ase wɔ nnipa anim, ɛfiri sɛ moannante mʼakwan so na mmom mode animhwɛ abu mmara so.”
Yuda Anni Nokorɛ
10Yɛn nyinaa mfiri Agya baako anaa? Ɛnyɛ Onyankopɔn baako na ɔbɔɔ yɛn? Na, afei, adɛn enti na yɛnni yɛn ho yɛn ho nokorɛ, na yɛde bu yɛn agyanom apam no so?
11Yuda anni nokorɛ. Akyiwadeɛ bi asi wɔ Israel ne Yerusalem mu: Yuda agu hyiadan a Awurade dɔ no ho fi, ɛfiri sɛ waware ɔbaa a ɔsom ananafoɔ nyame. 12Ɔbarima a ɔyɛ yei deɛ, sɛdeɛ ɔteɛ biara, Awurade mpam no mfiri Yakob ntomadan mu, mpo sɛ ɔde afɔrebɔdeɛ rebrɛ Asafo Awurade no koraa a.
13Adeɛ a moyɛ bio ne sɛ: mode nisuo fɔ Awurade afɔrebukyia no. Mote nisuo na motwa adwo ɛfiri sɛ ɔnhwɛ mo afɔrebɔdeɛ no bio, na ɔmmfa anigyeɛ nnye mfiri mo nkyɛn. 14Mobisa sɛ, “Adɛn nti?” Ɛfiri sɛ Awurade te sɛ ɔdanseni a ɔda wo ne wo mmeranteberɛ mu yere ntam, a woanni no nokorɛ.
15Ɛnyɛ Awurade korɔ no ara na ɔbɔɔ mo? Ɔhonam fam ne honhom fam no, moyɛ ne dea. Deɛn na Onyankopɔn hwehwɛ? Ɔrehwehwɛ mma a onyamesuro wɔ wɔn mu. Enti da wo ho so wɔ honhom mu, na di wo mmeranteberɛ mu yere nokorɛ.
16“Mekyiri awaregyaeɛ!” Sɛdeɛ Awurade Israel Onyankopɔn seɛ nie. “Na metane ɔbarima a ɔde abufuhyeɛ hyɛ ne yere so na ɔsane de ne ntoma kata ne so,” sɛdeɛ Asafo Awurade seɛ nie.
Enti da wo ho so wɔ honhom mu, na di nokorɛ.
Atemmuo Da
17Mode mo nsɛm tuatua Awurade aso.
Mobisa sɛ, “Ɛkwan bɛn so na moatuatua nʼaso?”
Moka sɛ, “Wɔn a wɔyɛ bɔne nyinaa tene wɔ Awurade anim, na wɔsɔ nʼani,” anaa “Onyankopɔn ɔtemmufoɔ nokwafoɔ no wɔ he?”
The Lord Warns the Priests
1“Now I am giving this warning to you priests. 2Listen to it. Honor me with all your heart,” says the Lord who rules over all. “If you do not, I will send a curse on you. I will turn your blessings into curses. In fact, I have already done that because you have not honored me with all your heart.
3“Because of what you have done, I will punish your children. I will smear the waste from your sacrifices on your faces. And you will be carried off to the dump along with it. 4You will know that I have given you this warning. I have warned you so that my covenant with Levi will continue,” says the Lord who rules over all. 5“My covenant promised Levi life and peace. So I gave them to him. I required him to respect me. And he had great respect for my name. 6True teaching came from his mouth. Nothing but the truth came from his lips. He walked with me in peace. He did what was right. He turned many people away from their sins.
7“The lips of a priest should guard knowledge. After all, he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all. And people seek instruction from his mouth. 8But you have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has caused many people to trip and fall. You have broken my covenant with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all. 9“So I have caused all the people to hate you. They have lost respect for you. You have not done what I told you to do. Instead, you have favored one person over another in matters of the law.”
Breaking the Covenant Through Divorce
10People of Judah, all of us have one Father. One God created us. So why do we break the covenant the Lord made with our people of long ago? We do this by being unfaithful to one another.
11And Judah has been unfaithful. A hateful thing has been done in Israel and Jerusalem. The Lord loves his temple. But Judah has made it impure. Their men have married women who worship other gods. 12May the Lord punish the man who marries a woman like this. It doesn’t matter who that man is. May the Lord who rules over all remove him from the tents of Jacob’s people. May the Lord remove him even if he brings an offering to him.
13Here’s something else you do. You flood the Lord’s altar with your tears. You weep and cry because your offerings don’t please him anymore. He doesn’t accept them with pleasure from your hands. 14You ask, “Why?” It’s because the Lord is holding you responsible. He watches how you treat the wife you married when you were young. You have been unfaithful to her. You did it even though she’s your partner. You promised to stay married to her. And the Lord was a witness to it.
15Hasn’t the one God made the two of you one also? Both of you belong to him in body and spirit. And why has the one God made you one? Because he wants his children to be like him. So be careful. Don’t be unfaithful to the wife you married when you were young.
16“Suppose a man hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord God of Israel. “Then he is harming the one he should protect,” says the Lord who rules over all.
So be careful. And don’t be unfaithful.
Breaking the Covenant by Treating Others Unfairly
17You have worn out the Lord by what you keep saying.
“How have we worn him out?” you ask.
You have done it by saying, “All those who do evil things are good in the Lord’s sight. And he is pleased with them.” Or you ask, “Is God really fair?”
