2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. 2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously 1 the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment 2 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 3 and will spread offal 4 on your faces, 5 the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.
1 tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”
2 tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”
3 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.
4 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).
5 sn See Zech 3:3-4 for similar coarse imagery which reflects cultic disqualification.