Malachi 2:2

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.

Deuteronomy 28:15-19

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ³  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ⁴  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ⁵  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ⁶ 

Joshua 7:12-13

7:12 The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation. ⁷  I will no longer be with you, ⁸  unless you destroy what has contaminated you. ⁹  7:13 Get up! Ritually consecrate the people and tell them this: ‘Ritually consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord God of Israel says, “You are contaminated, ¹⁰  O Israel! You will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove what is contaminating you.” ¹¹ 

Joshua 22:20

22:20 When Achan son of Zerah disobeyed the command about the city’s riches, the entire Israelite community was judged, ¹²  though only one man had sinned. He most certainly died for his sin!’” ¹³ 

Isaiah 43:28

43:28 So I defiled your holy princes,

and handed Jacob over to destruction,

and subjected ¹⁴  Israel to humiliating abuse.”

Haggai 1:6-11

1:6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but are never filled. You drink, but are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but are not warm. Those who earn wages end up with holes in their money bags.’” ¹⁵ 

The Instruction of the People

1:7 “Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says: ‘Pay close attention to these things also. ¹⁶  1:8 Go up to the hill country and bring back timber to build ¹⁷  the temple. ¹⁸  Then I will be pleased and honored,’ ¹⁹  says the Lord. 1:9 ‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ²⁰  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ²¹  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ²²  1:10 This is why the sky ²³  has held back its dew and the earth its produce. ²⁴  1:11 Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.’” ²⁵ 

Haggai 2:14-17

2:14 Then Haggai responded, “‘The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,’ ²⁶  says the Lord. ‘And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean. ²⁷  2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ²⁸  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. ²⁹  2:16 From that time ³⁰  when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty. 2:17 I struck all the products of your labor ³¹  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ³²  says the Lord.

[2:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

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

[28:15]  ³ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁶ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[7:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “they turn [the] back before their enemies because they are set apart [to destruction by the Lord].”

[7:12]  ⁸ tn The second person pronoun is plural in Hebrew, indicating these words are addressed to the entire nation.

[7:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “what is set apart [to destruction by the Lord] from your midst.”

[7:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what is set apart [to destruction by the Lord] [is] in your midst.”

[7:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “remove what is set apart [i.e., to destruction by the Lord] from your midst.”

[22:20]  ¹² tn Heb “Is it not [true that] Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord] and against all the assembly of Israel there was anger?”

[22:20]  ¹³ tn The second half of the verse reads literally, “and he [was] one man, he did not die for his sin.” There are at least two possible ways to explain this statement: (1) One might interpret the statement to mean that Achan was not the only person who died for his sin. In this case it could be translated, “and he was not the only one to die because of his sin.” (2) Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to take the words וְהוּא אִישׁ אֶחָד (vÿhu’ ’ish ’ekhad, “and he [was] one man”) as a concessive clause and join it with what precedes. The remaining words (לֹא גָוַע בַּעֲוֹנוֹ, lo’ gava’ ba’avono) must then be taken as a rhetorical question (“Did he not die for his sin?”). Taking the last sentence as interrogative is consistent with the first part of the verse, a rhetorical question introduced with the interrogative particle. The present translation has converted these rhetorical questions into affirmative statements to bring out more clearly the points they are emphasizing. For further discussion, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 240.

[43:28]  ¹⁴ tn The word “subjected” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:6]  ¹⁵ tn Some translate “pockets” (so NLT) but the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror) refers to a bag, pouch, or purse of money (BDB 865 s.v. צְרוֹר; HALOT 1054 s.v. צְרוֹר 1). Because coinage had been invented by the Persians and was thus in use in Haggai’s day, this likely is a money bag or purse rather than pouches or pockets in the clothing. Since in contemporary English “purse” (so NASB, NIV, NCV) could be understood as a handbag, the present translation uses “money bags.”

[1:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Set your heart upon your ways”; see v. 5.

[1:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and build the house” (so NIV, NRSV), with “house” referring specifically to the temple here.

[1:8]  ¹⁸ sn The temple was built primarily of stone, so the timber here refers to interior paneling (see v. 4) and perhaps to scaffolding (see Ezra 5:8; 6:4).

[1:8]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew verb אֶכָּבְדָ (’ekkavda) appears to be a defectively written cohortative (“that I may be glorified”). The cohortatives (note that the preceding אֶרְצֶה, ’ertseh, “I will be pleased,” may also be taken as cohortative) indicate purpose/result (cf. NIV, NRSV “so that”; CEV “so”) following the imperatives of v. 8a (“go up,” “bring back,” “build”).

[1:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “look!” (הִנֵּה, hinneh). The term, an interjection, draws attention to the point being made.

[1:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “I blew it away” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT). The imagery here suggests that human achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them (see Ezek 22:20, 21; and Isa 40:7 with נָשַׁב, nashav).

[1:9]  ²² tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”

[1:10]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text has “over you” (so KJV), but this is redundant in contemporary English and has been left untranslated.

[1:10]  ²⁴ sn This linkage of human sin to natural disaster is reminiscent of the curse brought upon the earth by Adam’s disobedience (Gen 3:17-19; see Rom 8:20-22).

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “all the labor of hands” (similar KJV, NASB, NIV); cf. NAB “all that is produced by hand.”

[2:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “so this people, and so this nation before me.” In this context “people” and “nation” refer to the same set of individuals; the repetition is emphatic. Cf. CEV “this entire nation.”

[2:14]  ²⁷ sn The point here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; instead, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.

[2:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and now set your heart from this day and upward.” The juxtaposition of מָעְלָה (ma’lah, “upward”) with the following מִטֶּרֶם (mitterem, “before”) demands a look to the past. Cf. ASV “consider from this day and backward.”

[2:15]  ²⁹ sn Before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple is best taken as referring to the laying of the present temple’s foundation, sixteen years earlier (536 b.c.; see Ezra 3:8). Cf. NCV “before you started laying stones”; TEV “before you started to rebuild”; NLT “before you began to lay (started laying CEV) the foundation.”

[2:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”

[2:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”

[2:17]  ³² tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the Lord. Cf. KJV and many English versions “yet ye turned not to me,” understanding the phrase to refer to the people’s repentance rather than their failure to bring offerings.