1 Samuel 2:12-17

Eli’s Sons Misuse Their Sacred Office

2:12 The sons of Eli were wicked men. ¹  They did not recognize the Lord’s authority. ²  2:13 Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: ³  Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork ⁴  in his hand. 2:14 He would jab it into the basin, kettle, caldron, or pot, and everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they used to do to all the Israelites ⁵  when they came there to Shiloh.

2:15 Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s attendant would come and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, “Hand over some meat for the priest to roast! He won’t take boiled meat from you, but only raw.” ⁶  2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ⁷  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

2:17 The sin of these young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they ⁸  treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

1 Samuel 2:22

2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel ⁹  and how they used to have sex with ¹⁰  the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Yeremia 2:8

2:8 Your priests ¹¹  did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ ¹² 

Those responsible for teaching my law ¹³  did not really know me. ¹⁴ 

Your rulers rebelled against me.

Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. ¹⁵ 

They all worshiped idols that could not help them. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 2:26-27

2:26 Just as a thief has to suffer dishonor when he is caught,

so the people of Israel ¹⁷  will suffer dishonor for what they have done. ¹⁸ 

So will their kings and officials,

their priests and their prophets.

2:27 They say to a wooden idol, ¹⁹  ‘You are my father.’

They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²⁰ 

Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ²¹ 

Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

Ratapan 4:13

מ (Mem)

4:13 But it happened ²²  due to the sins of her prophets ²³ 

and the iniquities of her priests,

who poured out in her midst

the blood of the righteous.

Mikha 3:11-12

3:11 Her ²⁴  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²⁵ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ²⁶  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²⁷ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁸  us!”

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ²⁹  Zion will be plowed up like ³⁰  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ³¹  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ³² 

Zefanya 3:3-4

3:3 Her princes ³³  are as fierce as roaring lions; ³⁴ 

her rulers ³⁵  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ³⁶ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ³⁷ 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ³⁸ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ³⁹ 

they break God’s laws. ⁴⁰ 

Maleakhi 1:6-8

The Sacrilege of Priestly Service

1:6 “A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects ⁴¹  his master. If I am your ⁴²  father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The Lord who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply, ‘How have we made light of your name?’ 1:7 You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ⁴³  of the Lord as if it is of no importance! 1:8 For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, ⁴⁴  is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them ⁴⁵  to your governor! Will he be pleased with you ⁴⁶  or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 2:1-3

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. 2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ⁴⁷  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ⁴⁸  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart. 2:3 I am about to discipline your children ⁴⁹  and will spread offal ⁵⁰  on your faces, ⁵¹  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

Maleakhi 2:8

2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ⁵²  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ⁵³  says the Lord who rules over all.

[2:12]  ¹ tn Heb “sons of worthlessness.”

[2:12]  ² tn Heb “they did not know the Lord.” The verb here has the semantic nuance “recognize the authority of.” Eli’s sons obviously knew who the Lord was; they served in his sanctuary. But they did not recognize his moral authority.

[2:13]  ³ tn Heb “the habit of the priests with the people [was this].”

[2:13]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew word occurs only twice in the OT, here and again in v. 14. Its exact meaning is not entirely clear, although from the context it appears to be a sacrificial tool used for retrieving things from boiling water.

[2:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “living.”

[2:16]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

[2:17]  ⁸ tc Heb “the men,” which is absent from one medieval Hebrew ms, a Qumran ms, and the LXX.

[2:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

[2:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lie with.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”

[2:8]  ¹² sn See the study note on 2:6.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “those who handle my law.”

[2:8]  sn The reference is likely to the priests and Levites who were responsible for teaching the law (so Jer 18:18; cf. Deut 33:10). According to Jer 8:8 it could possibly refer to the scribes who copied the law.

[2:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.

[2:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by Baal.”

[2:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).

[2:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[2:26]  ¹⁸ tn The words “for what they have done” are implicit in the comparison and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “wood…stone…”

[2:27]  ²⁰ sn The reference to wood and stone is, of course, a pejorative reference to idols made by human hands. See the next verse where reference is made to “the gods you have made.”

[2:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.”

[4:13]  ²² tn These words do not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied to make sense of the line. The introductory causal preposition מִן (min) (“because”) indicates that this phrase – or something like it – is implied through elision.

[4:13]  ²³ tn There is no main verb in the verse; it is an extended prepositional phrase. One must either assume a verbal idea such as “But it happened due to…” or connect it to the following verses, which themselves are quite difficult. The former option was employed in the present translation.

[3:11]  ²⁴ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁸ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:12]  ²⁹ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ³² tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

[3:3]  ³³ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³⁵ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[3:4]  ³⁸ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ³⁹ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  sn These priests defile what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).

[3:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[1:6]  ⁴¹ tn The verb “respects” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. It is understood by ellipsis (see “honors” in the preceding line).

[1:6]  ⁴² tn The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification (also a second time before “master” later in this verse).

[1:7]  ⁴³ sn The word table, here a synonym for “altar,” has overtones of covenant imagery in which a feast shared by the covenant partners was an important element (see Exod 24:11). It also draws attention to the analogy of sitting down at a common meal with the governor (v. 8).

[1:8]  ⁴⁴ sn Offerings of animals that were lame or sick were strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law (see Deut 15:21).

[1:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “it” (so NAB, NASB). Contemporary English more naturally uses a plural pronoun to agree with “the lame and sick” in the previous question (cf. NIV, NCV).

[1:8]  ⁴⁶ tc The LXX and Vulgate read “with it” (which in Hebrew would be הֲיִרְצֵהוּ, hayirtsehu, a reading followed by NAB) rather than “with you” of the MT (הֲיִרְצְךָ, hayirtsÿkha). The MT (followed here by most English versions) is to be preferred because of the parallel with the following phrase פָנֶיךָ (fanekha, “receive you,” which the present translation renders as “show you favor”).

[2:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[2:3]  ⁴⁹ tc The phrase “discipline your children” is disputed. The LXX and Vulgate suppose זְרוֹעַ (zÿroa’, “arm”) for the MT זֶרַע (zera’, “seed”; hence, “children”). Then, for the MT גֹעֵר (go’er, “rebuking”) the same versions suggest גָּרַע (gara’, “take away”). The resulting translation is “I am about to take away your arm” (cf. NAB “deprive you of the shoulder”). However, this reading is unlikely. It is common for a curse (v. 2) to fall on offspring (see, e.g., Deut 28:18, 32, 41, 53, 55, 57), but a curse never takes the form of a broken or amputated arm. It is preferable to retain the reading of the MT here.

[2:3]  ⁵⁰ tn The Hebrew term פֶרֶשׁ (feresh, “offal”) refers to the entrails as ripped out in preparing a sacrificial victim (BDB 831 s.v. פֶּרֶשׁ). This graphic term has been variously translated: “dung” (KJV, RSV, NRSV, NLT); “refuse” (NKJV, NASB); “offal” (NEB, NIV).

[2:3]  ⁵¹ sn See Zech 3:3-4 for similar coarse imagery which reflects cultic disqualification.

[2:8]  ⁵² tn The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה (battorah) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7).

[2:8]  ⁵³ tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”