Malachi 3:6

Resistance to the Lord through Selfishness

3:6 “Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises, ¹  you, sons of Jacob, have not perished.

Malachi 3:18

3:18 Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between ²  the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Malachi 2:2

2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ³  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ⁴  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart.

Malachi 2:6

2:6 He taught what was true; ⁵  sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin.

Malachi 1:10

1:10 “I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, ⁶  so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you.

Malachi 3:10

3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ⁷  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.

Malachi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ⁸  “For indeed the day ⁹  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ¹⁰  will not leave even a root or branch.

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “do not change.” This refers to God’s ongoing commitment to his covenant promises to Israel.

[3:18]  ² tn Heb “you will see between.” Cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT “see the difference.”

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “True teaching was in his mouth”; cf. NASB, NRSV “True instruction (doctrine NAB) was in his mouth.”

[1:10]  ⁵ sn The rhetorical language suggests that as long as the priesthood and people remain disobedient, the temple doors may as well be closed because God is not “at home” to receive them or their worship there.

[3:10]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”

[4:1]  ⁷ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ⁸ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.