Ezekiel 22:26

22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ¹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ²  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.

Leviticus 10:10-11

10:10 as well as ³  to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, ⁴  10:11 and to teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through ⁵  Moses.”

Deuteronomy 33:10

33:10 They will teach Jacob your ordinances

and Israel your law;

they will offer incense as a pleasant odor,

and a whole offering on your altar.

Hosea 4:6

4:6 You have destroyed ⁶  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ⁷ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ⁸  the law of your God,

I will reject ⁹  your descendants.

Micah 3:9-11

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ¹⁰  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ¹¹  of Israel!

You ¹²  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

3:10 You ¹³  build Zion through bloody crimes, ¹⁴ 

Jerusalem ¹⁵  through unjust violence.

3:11 Her ¹⁶  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹⁷ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁸  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁹ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁰  us!”

Zephaniah 3:4

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ²¹ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ²² 

they break God’s laws. ²³ 

Haggai 2:11-13

2:11 “The Lord who rules over all says, ‘Ask the priests about the law. ²⁴  2:12 If someone carries holy meat in a fold of his garment and that fold touches bread, a boiled dish, wine, olive oil, or any other food, will that item become holy?’” ²⁵  The priests answered, “It will not.” 2:13 Then Haggai asked, “If a person who is ritually unclean because of touching a dead body ²⁶  comes in contact with one of these items, will it become unclean?” The priests answered, “It will be unclean.”

Malachi 2:6-9

2:6 He taught what was true; ²⁷  sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin. 2:7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him ²⁸  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; ²⁹  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ³⁰  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 ³¹  instruction.”

Malachi 2:2

2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ³²  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ³³  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart.

Malachi 2:1

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

Malachi 2:1

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

Titus 1:9-11

1:9 He must hold firmly to the faithful message as it has been taught, ³⁴  so that he will be able to give exhortation in such healthy teaching ³⁵  and correct those who speak against it.

1:10 For there are many ³⁶  rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, ³⁷  1:11 who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught.

[22:26]  ¹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ² tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[10:10]  ³ tn Heb “and,” but regarding the translation “as well as,” see the note at the end of v. 9.

[10:10]  ⁴ sn The two pairs of categories in this verse refer to: (1) the status of a person, place, thing, or time – “holy” (קֹדֶשׁ, qodesh) versus “common” (חֹל, khol); as opposed to (2) the condition of a person, place, or thing – “unclean” (טָמֵא, tame’) versus “clean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Someone or something could gain “holy” status by being “consecrated” (i.e., made holy; e.g., the Hebrew Piel קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) in Lev 8:15, 30), and to treat someone or something that was holy as if it were “common” would be to “profane” that person or thing (the Hebrew Piel הִלֵּל [hillel], e.g., in Lev 19:29 and 22:15). Similarly, on another level, someone or something could be in a “clean” condition, but one could “defile” (the Hebrew Piel טִמֵּא [timme’], e.g., in Gen 34:5 and Num 6:9) that person or thing and thereby make it “unclean.” To “purify” (the Hebrew Piel טִהֵר [tiher], e.g., in Lev 16:19 and Num 8:6, 15) that unclean person or thing would be to make it “clean” once again. With regard to the animals (Lev 11), some were by nature “unclean,” so they could never be eaten, but others were by nature “clean” and, therefore, edible (Lev 11:2, 46-47). The meat of clean animals could become inedible by too long of a delay in eating it, in which case the Hebrew term פִּגּוּל (pigul) “foul, spoiled” is used to describe it (Lev 7:18; 19:7; cf. also Ezek 4:14 and Isa 65:4), not the term for “unclean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Strictly speaking, therefore, unclean meat never becomes clean, and clean meat never becomes unclean.

[10:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[4:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹² tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[3:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “who.”

[3:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”

[3:10]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:11]  ¹⁶ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:4]  ²¹ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ²² tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ²³ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[2:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Ask the priests a torah, saying”; KJV “concerning the law”; NAB “for a decision”; NCV “for a teaching”; NRSV “for a ruling.”

[2:12]  ²⁵ sn This is probably not an appeal to the Torah (i.e., the Pentateuch) as such but to a priestly ruling (known in postbiblical Judaism as a pÿsaq din). There is, however, a Mosaic law that provides the basis for the priestly ruling (Lev 6:27).

[2:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “unclean of a person,” a euphemism for “unclean because of a dead person”; see Lev 21:11; Num 6:6. Cf. NAB “unclean from contact with a corpse.”

[2:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “True teaching was in his mouth”; cf. NASB, NRSV “True instruction (doctrine NAB) was in his mouth.”

[2:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from his mouth” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:8]  ²⁹ 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).

[2:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”

[2:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).

[2:2]  ³² tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ³³ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[1:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the faithful message in accordance with the teaching” (referring to apostolic teaching).

[1:9]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the healthy teaching” (referring to what was just mentioned).

[1:10]  ³⁶ tc ‡ The earliest and best mss lack καί (kai) after πολλοί (polloi; so א A C P 088 81 104 365 614 629 630 al sy co), though the conjunction is found in several significant witnesses, chiefly of the Western and Byzantine texts (D F G I Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted the word, thinking it was superfluous, it is also possible that others added the conjunction for clarification. Judging by the pedigree of the witnesses and the inconclusiveness of the internal evidence, the shorter reading is considered to be most likely original. NA²⁷ puts the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[1:10]  ³⁷ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” Some translations take this to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity (cf. NAB “Jewish Christians”; TEV “converts from Judaism”; CEV “Jewish followers”) while others are less clear (cf. NLT “those who insist on circumcision for salvation”).