1“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. 2If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says Yahweh of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. 3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. 4You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. 5“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. 6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies. 8But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. 9“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. 10Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah 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. 12Yahweh will cut off the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies.
13“This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. 14Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. 15Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.
17You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
What is particularly striking about the manner of prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is that they were to address God as their Father. Out of this new relationship flow other important features of the prayer that distinguish it from the meaningless babble of the pagans (Matt 6:7-8). Though Yahweh had occasionally described himself as a father to Israel (e. g., Hos 11:1; Mal 1:6, 2:10), it was because the nation owed its existence and well-being to God's covenant with Abraham, and Isaac's miraculous conception. Until Jesus came, there is no evidence that individual believers thought of God, or addressed him, as their personal father. But now, in union with Jesus, the (ontological) Son of God, believers have been adopted into a new relationship as sons (Gal 4:1-7).
The address, "Our Father," serves to remind those praying that they share God as Father with everyone he has begotten. Thus, the self-interest that drives pagan prayer is subordinated to the interests of others (Phil 3:3-4). Carrying on in order "to be heard" (Matt 6:7) is replaced with confidence that "Your Father knows what you need before you ask" (v. 8). In response to this amazing new reality, the first three requests (vv. 9-10) give priority to God and His coming kingdom. The last requests--equal in number and not unimportant--express humble dependence upon God to meet the needs of His people until His kingdom comes (vv. 11-13). The forgiveness requested in verse 12 is for restoration to fellowship (1 John 1:9), not justification.
Whether the doxology, at the end of verse 13, is original or a scribal addition, it concludes the prayer on the note with which it begins: The glory of God. Thus, the prayer as a whole is summarized with the words of Jesus' prayer, "'yet not as I will, but as You will'" (Matt 26:39, NAU).