Maleakhi 2:10

The Rebellion of the People

2:10 Do we not all have one father? ¹  Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?

Maleakhi 2:12

2:12 May the Lord cut off from the community ²  of Jacob every last person who does this, ³  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

Maleakhi 1:9

1:9 But now plead for God’s favor ⁴  that he might be gracious to us. ⁵  “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ⁶  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ⁷  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Maleakhi 4:3

4:3 You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 3:6

Resistance to the Lord through Selfishness

3:6 “Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises, ⁸  you, sons of Jacob, have not perished.

Maleakhi 3:12

3:12 “All nations will call you happy, for you indeed will live in ⁹  a delightful land,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 3:15

3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ¹⁰  In fact, those who challenge ¹¹  God escape!’”

Maleakhi 1:13

1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ¹²  asks the Lord.

Maleakhi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ¹³  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁴ 

Maleakhi 1:7

1:7 You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ¹⁵  of the Lord as if it is of no importance!

Maleakhi 2:4

2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ¹⁶  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 2:7-8

2:7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him ¹⁷  because he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all. 2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ¹⁸  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ¹⁹  says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ²⁰  like a launderer’s soap.

Maleakhi 3:11

3:11 Then I will stop the plague ²¹  from ruining your crops, ²²  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ²³  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ²⁴ 

Maleakhi 1:4

1:4 Edom ²⁵  says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all ²⁶  responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as ²⁷  the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.

Maleakhi 1:8

1:8 For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, ²⁸  is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them ²⁹  to your governor! Will he be pleased with you ³⁰  or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 1:10-11

1:10 “I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, ³¹  so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you. 1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” ³²  says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 1:14

1:14 “There will be harsh condemnation for the hypocrite who has a valuable male animal in his flock but vows and sacrifices something inferior to the Lord. For I am a great king,” ³³  says the Lord who rules over all, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

Maleakhi 2:2

2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ³⁴  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ³⁵  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart.

Maleakhi 3:1

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ³⁶  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ³⁷  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ³⁸  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 3:3

3:3 He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

Maleakhi 3:7

3:7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ³⁹  my commandments ⁴⁰  and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

Maleakhi 3:10

3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ⁴¹  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.

Maleakhi 3:17

3:17 “They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ⁴²  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Maleakhi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ⁴³  “For indeed the day ⁴⁴  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ⁴⁵  will not leave even a root or branch.

Maleakhi 1:6

The Sacrilege of Priestly Service

1:6 “A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects ⁴⁶  his master. If I am your ⁴⁷  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?’

Maleakhi 3:5

3:5 “I ⁴⁸  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ⁴⁹  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ⁵⁰  who refuse to help ⁵¹  the immigrant ⁵²  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

[2:10]  ¹ sn The rhetorical question Do we not all have one father? by no means teaches the “universal fatherhood of God,” that is, that all people equally are children of God. The reference to the covenant in v. 10 as well as to Israel and Judah (v. 11) makes it clear that the referent of “we” is God’s elect people.

[2:12]  ² tn Heb “tents,” used figuratively for the community here (cf. NCV, TEV); NLT “the nation of Israel.”

[2:12]  ³ tc Heb “every man who does this, him who is awake and him who answers.” For “answers” the LXX suggests an underlying Hebrew text of עָנָה (’anah, “to be humbled”), and then the whole phrase is modified slightly: “until he is humbled.” This requires also that the MT עֵר (’er, “awake”) be read as עֵד (’ed, “until”; here the LXX reads ἕως, Jews). The reading of the LXX is most likely an alteration to correct what is arguably a difficult text.

[2:12]  tn Heb “every man who does this, him who is awake and him who answers.” The idea seems to be a merism expressing totality, that is, everybody from the awakener to the awakened, thus “every last person who does this” (NLT similar); NIV “whoever he may be.”

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “seek the face of God.”

[1:9]  ⁵ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunction indicates purpose (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[2:16]  ⁶ tc The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2,10-16,” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after כִּי (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form שָׂנֵא can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[2:16]  sn Though the statement “I hate divorce” may (and should) be understood as a comprehensive biblical principle, the immediate context suggests that the divorce in view is that of one Jewish person by another in order to undertake subsequent marriages. The injunction here by no means contradicts Ezra’s commands to Jewish men to divorce their heathen wives (Ezra 9–10).

[2:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “him who covers his garment with violence” (similar ASV, NRSV). Here “garment” is a metaphor for appearance and “violence” a metonymy of effect for cause. God views divorce as an act of violence against the victim.

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not change.” This refers to God’s ongoing commitment to his covenant promises to Israel.

[3:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “will be” (so NAB, NRSV); TEV “your land will be a good place to live in.”

[3:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ¹¹ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[1:13]  ¹² tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).

[3:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ¹⁴ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[1:7]  ¹⁵ 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).

[2:4]  ¹⁶ sn My covenant refers to the priestly covenant through Aaron and his grandson Phinehas (see Exod 6:16-20; Num 25:10-13; Jer 33:21-22). The point here is to contrast the priestly ideal with the disgraceful manner in which it was being carried out in postexilic times.

[2:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from his mouth” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:8]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”

[3:2]  ²⁰ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[3:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “the eater” (אֹכֵל, ’okhel), a general term for any kind of threat to crops and livelihood. This is understood as a reference to a locust plague by a number of English versions: NAB, NRSV “the locust”; NIV “pests”; NCV, TEV “insects.”

[3:11]  ²² tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”

[4:6]  ²³ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

[4:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.

[1:4]  ²⁵ sn Edom, a “brother” nation to Israel, became almost paradigmatic of hostility toward Israel and God (see Num 20:14-21; Deut 2:8; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad 10-12).

[1:4]  ²⁶ sn The epithet Lord who rules over all occurs frequently as a divine title throughout Malachi (24 times total). This name (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, yÿhvah tsÿva’ot), traditionally translated “Lord of hosts” (so KJV, NAB, NASB; cf. NIV NLT “Lord Almighty”; NCV, CEV “Lord All-Powerful”), emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the postexilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”

[1:8]  ²⁸ sn Offerings of animals that were lame or sick were strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law (see Deut 15:21).

[1:8]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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”).

[1:10]  ³¹ sn The rhetorical language suggests that as long as the priesthood and people remain disobedient, the temple doors may as well be closed because God is not “at home” to receive them or their worship there.

[1:11]  ³² sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.

[1:14]  ³³ sn The epithet great king was used to describe the Hittite rulers on their covenant documents and so, in the covenant ideology of Malachi, is an apt description of the Lord.

[2:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[3:1]  ³⁶ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ³⁷ tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ³⁸ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[3:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “turned aside from.”

[3:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “statutes” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “decrees”; NLT “laws.”

[3:10]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”

[3:17]  ⁴² sn The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah, “special property”) is a technical term referring to all the recipients of God’s redemptive grace, especially Israel (Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). The Lord says here that he will not forget even one individual in the day of judgment and reward.

[4:1]  ⁴³ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ⁴⁴ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[1:6]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ tn The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification (also a second time before “master” later in this verse).

[3:5]  ⁴⁸ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ⁵² tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”