Malachi 2:12

2:12 May the Lord cut off from the community ¹  of Jacob every last person who does this, ²  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

Malachi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ³  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ⁴  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 ⁵  my commandments ⁶  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 3:11

3:11 Then I will stop the plague ⁷  from ruining your crops, ⁸  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁹  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁰ 

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. ¹¹  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

¹ tn Heb “tents,” used figuratively for the community here (cf. NCV, TEV); NLT “the nation of Israel.”

² 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.

³ 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).

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Heb “turned aside from.”

⁶ tn Or “statutes” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “decrees”; NLT “laws.”

⁷ 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.”

⁸ tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”

⁹ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ 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.