1:6 “A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects 2 his master. If I am your 3 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?’
3:16 Then those who respected 7 the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. 8 A scroll 9 was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.
1:4 Edom 16 says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all 17 responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as 18 the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.
1 sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the
2 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).
3 tn The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification (also a second time before “master” later in this verse).
3 tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”
4 sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).
5 tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”
4 tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”
5 tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”
6 sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the
5 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
6 tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”
7 tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”
7 tn Heb “will be” (so NAB, NRSV); TEV “your land will be a good place to live in.”
8 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).
9 tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.
10 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).
11 sn The epithet
12 tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”