| Malachi | |
| מלאכי | |
| merged | |
| https://www.sefaria.org/Malachi | |
| This file contains merged sections from the following text versions: | |
| -THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition | |
| -https://jps.org/books/the-jps-tanakh-gender-sensitive-edition/ | |
| Malachi | |
| Chapter 1 | |
| A pronouncement: The word of G<small>OD</small> to Israel through Malachi. | |
| I have shown you love, said G<small>OD</small>. But you ask, “How have You shown us love?” After all—declares G<small>OD</small> —Esau is Jacob’s brother; yet I have accepted Jacob | |
| and have rejected Esau. I have made his hills a desolation, his territory a home for beasts<sup class="footnote-marker">a</sup><i class="footnote"><b>a home for beasts </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> of the desert. | |
| If Edom thinks, “Though crushed, we can build the ruins again,” thus said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts: They may build, but I will tear down. And so they shall be known as the region of wickedness, the people damned forever of G<small>OD</small>. | |
| Your eyes shall behold it, and you shall declare, “Great is G<small>OD</small> beyond the borders of Israel!” | |
| A son should honor his father, and a slave<sup class="footnote-marker">b</sup><i class="footnote"><b>slave </b>Septuagint and Targum add “should reverence”; cf. next part of verse.</i> his master. Now if I were a father, where would be the honor due Me? And if I were a master, where would be the reverence due Me?—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts to you, O priests who scorn My name. But you ask, “How have we scorned Your name?” | |
| You offer defiled food on My altar. But you ask, “How have we defiled You?”<sup class="footnote-marker">c</sup><i class="footnote"><b>You </b>Septuagint “it.”</i> By saying, “G<small>OD</small>’s table can be treated with scorn.” | |
| When you present a blind animal for sacrifice—it doesn’t matter! When you present a lame or sick one—it doesn’t matter! Just offer it to your governor: Will he accept you? Will he show you favor?—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| And now implore the favor of God! Will compassion be shown to us? This is what you have done—will any of you be accepted?<br> G<small>OD</small> of Hosts has said: | |
| If only you would lock My doors, and not kindle fire on My altar to no purpose! I take no pleasure in you—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts—and I will accept no offering from you. | |
| For from where the sun rises to where it sets, My name is honored among the nations, and everywhere incense and pure oblation are offered to My name; for My name is honored among the nations—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| But you profane it when you say, “The table of the Sovereign is defiled and the meat,<sup class="footnote-marker">d</sup><i class="footnote"><b>meat </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> the food, can be treated with scorn.” | |
| You say, “Oh, what a bother!” And so you degrade<sup class="footnote-marker">e</sup><i class="footnote"><b>degrade </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> it—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts—and you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; and you offer such as an oblation. Will I accept it from you?—said G<small>OD</small>. | |
| A curse on the cheat who has an [unblemished] male in the flock, but vows and sacrifices a blemished animal to the Sovereign! For I am an emperor—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts—and My name is revered among the nations. | |
| Chapter 2 | |
| And now, O priests, this charge is for you: | |
| Unless you obey and unless you lay it to heart, and do honor to My name—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts—I will send a curse and turn your blessings into curses. (Indeed, I have turned them into curses, because you do not lay it to heart.) | |
| I will put your seed under a ban,<sup class="footnote-marker">a</sup><i class="footnote"><b>put your seed under a ban </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> and I will strew dung upon your faces, the dung of your festal sacrifices, and you shall be carried out to its [heap]. | |
| Know, then, that I have sent this charge to you that My covenant with Levi may endure—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| I had with him a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave to him, and of reverence, which he showed Me. For he stood in awe of My name. | |
| <span class="poetry indentAll"><sup class="footnote-marker">b</sup><i class="footnote">See Hag. 2.10–13; cf. Lev. 10.8–11; Deut. 33.8, 10.</i> </span>Proper rulings were in his mouth,<br><span class="poetry indentAll">And nothing perverse was on his lips;</span><br><span class="poetry indentAll">He served Me with complete loyalty</span><br><span class="poetry indentAll">And held the many back from iniquity.</span> | |
| <span class="poetry indentAll">For the lips of a priest guard knowledge,</span><br><span class="poetry indentAll">And rulings are sought from his mouth;</span><sup class="footnote-marker">c</sup><i class="footnote"><b>For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, / And rulings are sought from his mouth </b>Or “For the lips of a priest are observed; / Knowledge and ruling are sought from his mouth.”</i> <br><span class="poetry indentAll">For he is a messenger of </span> G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| But you have turned away from that course: You have made the many stumble through your rulings;<sup class="footnote-marker">d</sup><i class="footnote"><b>through your rulings </b>By ruling falsely that an act was licit or an object ritually pure.</i> you have corrupted the covenant of the Levites—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| And I, in turn, have made you despicable and vile in the eyes of all the people, because you disregard My ways and show partiality in your rulings. | |
| Have we not all one Father?<sup class="footnote-marker">e</sup><i class="footnote"><b>Have we not all one Father </b>I.e., are we not members of the same household—and thus reliant upon each other? Or “father,” namely Jacob; cf. Ibn Ezra, Kimhi.</i> Did not one God create us? Why do we break faith with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? | |
| Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned what is holy to, and desired by, G<small>OD</small> —and espoused daughters of alien gods. | |
| May G<small>OD</small> leave to any man who has done this no descendants<sup class="footnote-marker">f</sup><i class="footnote"><b>no descendants </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> dwelling in the tents of Jacob and presenting offerings to G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| And this you do as well:<sup class="footnote-marker">g</sup><i class="footnote"><b>as well </b>Lit. “a second time”; Septuagint reads “that I detest”; cf. v. 16.</i> You cover the altar of G<small>OD</small> with tears, weeping, and moaning, so that [God] refuses to regard the oblation anymore and to accept what you offer.<sup class="footnote-marker">h</sup><i class="footnote"><b>what you offer </b>Lit. “from your hand.”</i> | |
| But you ask, “Because of what?” Because G<small>OD</small> is a witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have broken faith, though she is your partner and covenanted spouse. | |
| Did not the One make [all,] so that all remaining life-breath is that One’s? And what does that One seek but godly folk? So be careful of your life-breath,<sup class="footnote-marker">i</sup><i class="footnote"><b>so that all remaining life-breath … careful of your life-breath </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> and let no one break faith with the wife of his youth. | |
| For I detest divorce—said the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of Israel—and covering oneself with lawlessness as with a garment<sup class="footnote-marker">j</sup><i class="footnote"><b>and covering … with a garment </b>Meaning of Heb. uncertain.</i> —said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. So be careful of your life-breath and do not act treacherously. | |
| You have wearied G<small>OD</small> with your talk. But you ask, “By what have we done so?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of G<small>OD</small>, who delights in them,” or else, “Where is the God of justice?” | |
| Chapter 3 | |
| Behold, I am sending My messenger to clear the way before Me, and the Sovereign you seek shall come to the temple suddenly. As for the angel of the covenant<sup class="footnote-marker">a</sup><i class="footnote"><b>angel of the covenant </b>Apparently the messenger of the previous sentence is regarded as Israel’s tutelary angel.</i> that you desire, he is already coming. | |
| But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can hold out when he appears? For he is like a smelter’s fire and like fuller’s lye. | |
| He shall act<sup class="footnote-marker">b</sup><i class="footnote"><b>act </b>Lit. “sit.”</i> like a smelter and purger of silver; and he shall purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they shall present offerings in righteousness. | |
| Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to G<small>OD</small> as in the days of yore and in the years of old. | |
| But [first] I will step forward to contend against you, and I will act as a relentless accuser against those who have no fear of Me: Who practice sorcery, who commit adultery, who swear falsely, who cheat laborers of their hire, and who subvert [the cause of] the widow, orphan, and stranger, said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| <sup class="footnote-marker">c</sup><i class="footnote">Vv. 6–12 resume the thought of 1.2–5.</i> For I am G<small>OD</small> —I have not changed; and you are the children of Jacob—you have not ceased to be. | |
| From the very days of your ancestors you have turned away from My laws and have not observed them. Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to you—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. But you ask, “How shall we turn back?” | |
| Ought mortals to defraud<sup class="footnote-marker">d</sup><i class="footnote"><b>defraud </b>Heb. <i>qabaʻ</i>, a play on the name of Jacob (v. 6); cf. Gen. 27.36.</i> God? Yet you are defrauding Me. And you ask, “How have we been defrauding You?” In tithe and contribution.<sup class="footnote-marker">e</sup><i class="footnote"><b>In tithe and contribution </b>I.e., the contributions to the priests from the new grain, oil, and wine; see Num. 18.12.</i> | |
| You are suffering under a curse, yet you go on defrauding Me—the whole nation of you. | |
| Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,<sup class="footnote-marker">f</sup><i class="footnote"><b>storehouse </b>I.e., the public storehouse; see Neh. 13.10–13.</i> and let there be food in My House, and thus put Me to the test—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you; | |
| and I will banish the locusts<sup class="footnote-marker">g</sup><i class="footnote"><b>locusts </b>Lit. “devourer.”</i> from you, so that they will not destroy the yield of your soil; and your vines in the field shall no longer miscarry—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| And all the nations shall account you happy, for you shall be the most desired of lands—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| You have spoken hard words against Me—said G<small>OD</small>. But you ask, “What have we been saying among ourselves against You?” | |
| You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping God’s charge and walking in abject awe of G<small>OD</small> of Hosts? | |
| And so, we account the arrogant happy: they have indeed done evil and endured; they have indeed dared God and escaped.” | |
| In this vein have those who revere G<small>OD</small> been talking to one another. G<small>OD</small> has heard and noted it, and a scroll of remembrance has been written at God’s behest concerning those who revere G<small>OD</small> and esteem the holy name. | |
| And on the day that I am preparing, said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts, they shall be My treasured possession; I will be tender toward them as a man<sup class="footnote-marker">h</sup><i class="footnote"><b>a man </b>I.e., a stereotypical householder.</i> is tender toward a son who ministers to him. | |
| And you shall come to see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who have served God and those who have not. | |
| For lo! That day is at hand, burning like an oven. All the arrogant and all the doers of evil shall be straw, and the day that is coming—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts—shall burn them to ashes and leave of them neither stock nor boughs. | |
| But for you who revere My name a sun of victory shall rise to bring healing.<sup class="footnote-marker">i</sup><i class="footnote"><b>to bring healing </b>Lit. “with healing in the folds of its garments”; in contrast to others “with healing in its wings.”</i> You shall go forth and stamp like stall-fed calves, | |
| and you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet on the day that I am preparing—said G<small>OD</small> of Hosts. | |
| Be mindful of the Teaching of My servant Moses, whom I charged at Horeb with laws and rules for all Israel. | |
| Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of G<small>OD</small>. | |
| He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.<br><br><small>Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of G<small>OD</small>.</small> |