Malachi 1:9

1:9 But now plead for God’s favor ¹  that he might be gracious to us. ²  “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 2:7-10

2:7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him ³  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; ⁴  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ⁵  says the Lord who rules over all. 2:9 “Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ⁶  instruction.”

The Rebellion of the People

2:10 Do we not all have one father? ⁷  Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?

Malachi 2:12

2:12 May the Lord cut off from the community ⁸  of Jacob every last person who does this, ⁹  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

Malachi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ¹⁰  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ¹¹  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Malachi 3:7

3:7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ¹²  my commandments ¹³  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?’

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ¹⁴  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁵ 

Malachi 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. ¹⁶  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Malachi 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.

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¹ tn Heb “seek the face of God.”

² tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunction indicates purpose (cf. NASB, NRSV).

³ tn Heb “from his mouth” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

⁴ 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).

⁵ tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”

⁶ tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “tents,” used figuratively for the community here (cf. NCV, TEV); NLT “the nation of Israel.”

⁹ 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.

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.”

¹⁰ 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).

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).

¹¹ 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.

¹² tn Heb “turned aside from.”

¹³ tn Or “statutes” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “decrees”; NLT “laws.”

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

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ 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.