Malachi 3:14-15

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ¹  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ²  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ³  In fact, those who challenge ⁴  God escape!’”

Malachi 1:4

1:4 Edom ⁵  says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all ⁶  responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as ⁷  the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.

Job 6:29

6:29 Relent, ⁸  let there be no falsehood; ⁹ 

reconsider, ¹⁰  for my righteousness is intact! ¹¹ 

Job 17:10

Anticipation of Death

17:10 “But turn, all of you, ¹²  and come ¹³  now! ¹⁴ 

I will not find a wise man among you.

Jeremiah 12:15

12:15 But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent ¹⁵  and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands ¹⁶  and to their own country.

Joel 2:14

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ¹⁷ 

and leave blessing in his wake ¹⁸  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ¹⁹ 

Zechariah 1:6

1:6 But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? ²⁰  Then they paid attention ²¹  and confessed, ‘The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.’”

[3:14]  ¹ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ² 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.

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[1:4]  ⁵ 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).

[1:4]  ⁶ sn The epithet Lord who rules over all occurs frequently as a divine title throughout Malachi (24 times total). This name (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, yÿhvah tsÿva’ot), traditionally translated “Lord of hosts” (so KJV, NAB, NASB; cf. NIV NLT “Lord Almighty”; NCV, CEV “Lord All-Powerful”), emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the postexilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.

[1:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”

[6:29]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb שֻׁבוּ (shuvu) would literally be “return.” It has here the sense of “to begin again; to adopt another course,” that is, proceed on another supposition other than my guilt (A. B. Davidson, Job, 49). The LXX takes the word from יָשַׁב (yashav, “sit, dwell”) reading “sit down now.”

[6:29]  ⁹ tn The word עַוְלָה (’avlah) is sometimes translated “iniquity.” The word can mean “perversion, wickedness, injustice” (cf. 16:11). But here he means in regard to words. Unjust or wicked words would be words that are false and destroy.

[6:29]  ¹⁰ tn The verb here is also שֻׁבוּ (shuvu), although there is a Kethib-Qere reading. See R. Gordis, “Some Unrecognized Meanings of the Root Shub,” JBL 52 (1933): 153-62.

[6:29]  ¹¹ tn The text has simply “yet my right is in it.” A. B. Davidson (Job, 49, 50) thinks this means that in his plea against God, Job has right on his side. It may mean this; it simply says “my righteousness is yet in it.” If the “in it” does not refer to Job’s cause, then it would simply mean “is present.” It would have very little difference either way.

[17:10]  ¹² tn The form says “all of them.” Several editors would change it to “all of you,” but the lack of concord is not surprising; the vocative elsewhere uses the third person (see Mic 1:2; see also GKC 441 §135.r).

[17:10]  ¹³ tn The first verb, the jussive, means “to return”; the second verb, the imperative, means “to come.” The two could be taken as a hendiadys, the first verb becoming adverbial: “to come again.”

[17:10]  ¹⁴ tn Instead of the exact correspondence between coordinate verbs, other combinations occur – here we have a jussive and an imperative (see GKC 386 §120.e).

[12:15]  ¹⁵ tn For the use of the verb “turn” (שׁוּב, shuv) in this sense, see BDB s.v. שׁוּב Qal.6.g and compare the usage in Pss 90:13; 6:4; Joel 2:14. It does not simply mean “again” as several of the English versions render it.

[12:15]  ¹⁶ sn The Lord is sovereign over the nations and has allotted each of them their lands. See Deut 2:5 (Edom), Deut 2:9 (Moab), Deut 2:19 (Ammon). He promised to restore not only his own people Israel to their land (Jer 32:37) but also Moab (Jer 48:47) and Ammon (Jer 49:6).

[2:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:6]  ²⁰ tc BHS suggests אֶתְכֶם (’etkhem, “you”) for the MT אֲבֹתֵיכֶם (’avotekhem, “your fathers”) to harmonize with v. 4. In v. 4 the ancestors would not turn but in v. 6 they appear to have done so. The subject in v. 6, however, is to be construed as Zechariah’s own listeners.

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “they turned” (so ASV). Many English versions have “they repented” here; cf. CEV “they turned back to me.”