MALACHI 2
2 And now, O priests, this command is for you:
2 If you won’t listen, and if you won’t put it on your heart to give glory to my name, says Yahweh of Warriors, then I will send the curse into you and curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them because none of you take this to heart.
3 Hey, pay attention to my rebuke of you, ‘the seed!’ Yes, I will spread manure on your faces, the manure of your festivals, and you will be wiped away along with it. 4 Then you will know that I committed this command to you in order to maintain my covenant with Levi. 5 For him my covenant was ‘the living and the wholeness’. And from that I gave him reverence, and he feared me, and he was broken before my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. He walked with me in wholeness and uprightness, and he helped many to turn away from evil.
7 For the lips of the priest must preserve knowledge, and the people will seek the law from his mouth, because he is a messenger of Yahweh of Warriors. 8 Instead you have turned from the way and made many stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahweh of Warriors, 9 and so I have made you hated and demeaned before all the people – according to the way in which none of you keep my ways but show partiality with the law. 10 Haven’t we all one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why then does each man treat his brother deceitfully, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has acted deceitfully and has committed an abomination in Israel and Jerusalem. For he profaned the Holy Place of Yahweh, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob every man who does this, both the tempter and the one who responds, and brings an offering to Yahweh of Warriors.
13 Then this second thing you do: you flood Yahweh’s altar with tears, weeping and moaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it favourably from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why is that?” It’s because Yahweh was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you acted deceitfully even though she is your companion and wife by your covenant. 15 Did he not make you one, and give a portion of spirit to the union? And what is that one seeking? Godly seed! So you are guarded both in your spirit and with the wife of your youth – he mustn’t go on acting deceitfully 16 by hating her and sending her away, says Yahweh, the Godhead of Israel. He will be dressing himself with violence, says Yahweh of Warriors. Yes, you are guarded in your spirit, so do not act deceitfully!
17 You have worn Yahweh out with your words, yet you say, “How have we worn him out?” It’s when you say, “All who do evil are good in Yahweh’s eyes, and he delights in them,” or, “Where is the judgment of the Godhead?”
Comments
1) God stated his case against the priests in chapter 1. Now he pronounces judgment in light of those sins, if they don't repent.
3) wiped away. Pleased to be able to translate this is such a way as to highlight the links between the idea of manure and the wiping and the impurity. Needs no explanation now!
11) married the daughter of a foreign god. Jewish men were divorcing their Jewish wives and marrying foreign women, thereby accepting their gods as well. These men think they are still following Yahweh, so just adding another god or two to the mix won't make any difference. But God is God alone. See the first commandment (Ex 20:3 - literally 'no gods beside me,' or 'along with me').
12) both the tempter and the one who responds. This phrase does not appear in some manuscripts. It is speaking of the culpability of both sides in a successful temptation; obviously the tempter is wrong, but the tempted person is not innocent either. He or she still makes the decision to follow.
15) Did he not make you one, and give a portion of spirit to the union? I believe God is part of every marriage, believing or non-believing. There is a sacredness in its sanction by the God of the Universe, and a guarding he does too (v16), that must not be violated by man.
15-16) he mustn’t go on acting deceitfully by hating her and sending her away, says Yahweh. Many translations have God saying, 'I hate divorce.' I do believe he does, but I can't see it in this section. The one doing the hating, I believe, is the man by divorcing (or 'sending away') his wife. The verse break here is unfortunate, and confuses the issue here, in my opinion.
17) This more closely relates to what follows in 3:1. It's saying that the Jews were complaining that, by not doing anything in judgment yet, God is tacitly approving of the evil going on (even though much of the evil was in them too!) God responds in ch3 with what he is doing about it (which was to happen over 400 years later).
1) God stated his case against the priests in chapter 1. Now he pronounces judgment in light of those sins, if they don't repent.
3) wiped away. Pleased to be able to translate this is such a way as to highlight the links between the idea of manure and the wiping and the impurity. Needs no explanation now!
11) married the daughter of a foreign god. Jewish men were divorcing their Jewish wives and marrying foreign women, thereby accepting their gods as well. These men think they are still following Yahweh, so just adding another god or two to the mix won't make any difference. But God is God alone. See the first commandment (Ex 20:3 - literally 'no gods beside me,' or 'along with me').
12) both the tempter and the one who responds. This phrase does not appear in some manuscripts. It is speaking of the culpability of both sides in a successful temptation; obviously the tempter is wrong, but the tempted person is not innocent either. He or she still makes the decision to follow.
15) Did he not make you one, and give a portion of spirit to the union? I believe God is part of every marriage, believing or non-believing. There is a sacredness in its sanction by the God of the Universe, and a guarding he does too (v16), that must not be violated by man.
15-16) he mustn’t go on acting deceitfully by hating her and sending her away, says Yahweh. Many translations have God saying, 'I hate divorce.' I do believe he does, but I can't see it in this section. The one doing the hating, I believe, is the man by divorcing (or 'sending away') his wife. The verse break here is unfortunate, and confuses the issue here, in my opinion.
17) This more closely relates to what follows in 3:1. It's saying that the Jews were complaining that, by not doing anything in judgment yet, God is tacitly approving of the evil going on (even though much of the evil was in them too!) God responds in ch3 with what he is doing about it (which was to happen over 400 years later).