Malachi 1:3

1:3 and rejected Esau. ¹  I turned Esau’s ²  mountains into a deserted wasteland ³  and gave his territory ⁴  to the wild jackals.”

Malachi 2:4

2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ⁵  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 3:11

3:11 Then I will stop the plague ⁶  from ruining your crops, ⁷  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 4:4

Restoration through the Lord

4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb ⁸  I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. ⁹ 

Malachi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹⁰  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ¹¹ 

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¹ tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deut 7:8; Jer 31:3; Hos 3:1; 9:15; 11:1).

² tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”

⁴ tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.”

⁷ tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”

⁸ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).

⁹ tn Heb “which I commanded him in Horeb concerning all Israel, statutes and ordinances.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ 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.