Malachi 2

And now, priests, this order is for you.

1And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

NoteMalachi speaks to the priests of the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, perhaps a century after the return from exile in Babylon (roughly the 400s BC). Priests were the men of the tribe of Levi who ran the sacrifices, and who also acted as the official teachers and judges in questions of religious law. "Order" translates a word for a royal or divine command, not a piece of advice.

2"If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart and honor my name," says the LORD of Hosts, "then I will send a curse on you, and I will turn your blessings into curses. In fact, I have already cursed them, because you are not taking it to heart.

2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Note"LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants that readers traditionally did not say aloud. "Hosts" is an old word for armies, the title pictures God as commander of vast forces. "Your blessings" are most likely the blessings the priests pronounced over the people as part of their job; the threat is that the words they speak to bless will work the opposite way.

3Look, I will rebuke your descendants. I will smear waste on your faces, the waste left from the animals of your festivals, and you will be carried off along with it.

3Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

Note"Your descendants" translates a Hebrew word meaning "seed," which can mean offspring or literal grain seed, so the threat may be against the priests' children or against their harvest. The waste is the dung and entrails of the animals sacrificed at the festivals, normally carted outside the settlement and burned. Smearing it on a priest's face is a deliberate reversal of his status: a priest handling filth is unfit to serve, and here he is thrown out with the refuse.

4Then you will know that I sent you this order, so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the LORD of Hosts.

4And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

NoteLevi was one of Jacob's sons; his descendants became the tribe set apart to serve at the sanctuary, with the priesthood drawn from them. The "covenant with Levi" is the binding agreement that gave that tribe its office in return for faithful service. A covenant is a formal, sworn agreement with obligations on both sides.

5"My covenant with him was a covenant of life and peace, and I gave these to him. It called for reverence, and he did revere me and stood in awe of my name.

5My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

Note"Life and peace" names what the agreement granted; "peace" (shalom) means wholeness and well-being, not merely absence of war. "Reverence" and "awe" translate words built on the Hebrew for fear, a mixture of dread and respect, the proper attitude of a subject before a king.

6True teaching was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and honesty, and he turned many people away from wrongdoing.

6The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

Note"True teaching" translates torah, the priest's ruling or instruction. Part of a priest's official work was deciding cases: what was clean or unclean, what an offense required, what the written law meant in a particular situation.

7A priest's lips should guard knowledge, and people should look to his mouth for instruction, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Note"Messenger" is the Hebrew word mal'akh, used both for human envoys and for the beings usually called angels. It is also the root of the prophet's own name, Malachi, "my messenger."

8But you have turned off the road. Your teaching has made many people stumble. You have ruined the covenant with Levi," says the LORD of Hosts.

8But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

9"So I in turn have made you despised and shamed in front of all the people, because you have not kept my ways but have played favorites in how you apply the law."

9Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Note"Played favorites" is literally "lifted faces" in Hebrew, the gesture of a judge raising up the face of someone bowing before him, and so a standard idiom for showing partiality. The charge is that the priests gave rulings that favored some people over others.

10Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another, treating the covenant of our ancestors as if it meant nothing?

10Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Note"One father" is ambiguous in the Hebrew and was debated in antiquity: it may mean the shared human ancestor Abraham or Jacob, or it may mean God, as the next line suggests. "Break faith" translates a verb used for treachery generally and very often for betrayal by a husband or wife; it is the key word of the rest of this chapter.

11Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. Judah has treated as common the holy place of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

11Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

Note"A detestable thing" translates a term for practices regarded as intolerable pollution of Israel's worship. "Treated as common" means stripped of holy status, handled as if ordinary; the Hebrew phrase can mean either the LORD's sanctuary or his holiness in general. "The daughter of a foreign god" means a woman who belongs to another god's people and worship, the objection is to the allegiance she brings, and the phrasing casts the marriage as a religious alliance.

12As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob (the one who is awake and the one who answers) even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.

12The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

Note"Cut off" is legal language for being removed from the community and its line of descent, the family ends. "The tents of Jacob" is an old poetic way of saying the households of Israel. "The one who is awake and the one who answers" is obscure in the Hebrew and has never been settled: proposals include a proverbial pairing meaning "every last person," a reference to watchman and respondent in temple duty, and a phrase about witnesses in court. The offering named at the end is the grain offering brought to the temple.

13And here is another thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, weeping and groaning, because he no longer pays attention to your offering or accepts it gladly from your hand.

13And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

NoteThe altar was the stone structure where offerings were burned. Flooding it with tears and groaning describes loud public mourning at the sanctuary, the men are lamenting that their sacrifices bring no results, and the answer given is that the sacrifices are being refused.

14Yet you ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife you married when you were young. You have broken faith with her, though she is your partner and your wife by covenant.

14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

NoteIn this book God's charge is regularly followed by the people answering back with a question, and then by the reply; the exchange is a set literary pattern, not a record of a conversation. "Witness" is courtroom language: a marriage was a sworn agreement, and God is named as the one who saw the oath sworn and can testify to it. "The wife of your youth" means the woman a man married when both were young, and carries the sense of long years shared.

15Did he not make them one? And the remainder of the spirit was his. And why one? Because he was looking for godly children. So watch yourselves, and let no one break faith with the wife he married when he was young.

15And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

NoteThis verse is the most obscure in the book and the Hebrew can be read several ways; the rendering keeps the difficulty rather than smoothing it out. "Make them one" is generally taken as an allusion to the creation account, where husband and wife become one flesh. "A portion of the spirit" may mean the breath of life God gives, or the remainder of that life-giving power still at his disposal; ancient and modern translators disagree. "Godly children" means offspring raised inside Israel's covenant.

16"For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel. "The man who divorces his wife covers his clothing with violence," says the LORD of Hosts. So watch yourselves, and do not break faith.

16For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. The traditional reading is "I hate divorce"; the consonants can also be read as "if he hates and divorces" or "the man who hates his wife and divorces her," which some ancient versions followed. Under the law of the time a husband could dismiss a wife by handing her a written notice; she had no matching right. "Covers his clothing with violence" is an idiom: what a man wears shows what he is, so the wrong is on open display. Spreading a garment over a woman was also a gesture of claiming her in marriage, and the image may deliberately turn that gesture inside out.

17You have worn the LORD out with your words. Yet you ask, "How have we worn him out?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD's sight, and he is pleased with them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"

17Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?