Malachi 2:4

2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ¹  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 2:11

2:11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. ²  For Judah has profaned ³  the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god! ⁴ 

Malachi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ⁵  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ⁶  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Malachi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ⁷  like a launderer’s soap.

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁸  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ⁹ 

Malachi 4:3

4:3 You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord who rules over all.

[2:4]  ¹ sn My covenant refers to the priestly covenant through Aaron and his grandson Phinehas (see Exod 6:16-20; Num 25:10-13; Jer 33:21-22). The point here is to contrast the priestly ideal with the disgraceful manner in which it was being carried out in postexilic times.

[2:11]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:11]  ³ tn Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.

[2:16]  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).

[2:16]  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.

[3:2]  ⁴ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ⁶ 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.