Malachi 2

Warning to the Priests

1“Therefore, this decree # Nah 1:14 is for you priests: 2If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart # Is 42:25; 57:1; Jr 12:11 to honor My name,” says Yahweh of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. # Dt 28:20; Pr 3:33; 28:27; Mal 3:9 In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.

3“Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants, # Hs 4:6-8 and I will spread animal waste # Dung or entrails over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, # Ex 29:14; Lv 16:27 and you will be taken away with it. 4Then you will know that I sent you this decree so My covenant with Levi # Nm 25:11-13; Dt 10:8; 33:8-11; Neh 13:29; Jr 33:17-22 may continue,” says the Lord of Hosts. 5“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, # 1Sm 25:6; Pr 3:2 and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. # Mal 1:6 6True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing wrong was found on his lips. He walked with Me # Gn 5:22,24; 6:9; Mc 6:8 in peace and fairness and turned many from sin. # Is 53:6; Jr 23:22; Ezk 3:19-20 7For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. # 2Ch 36:15-16; Hg 1:13

8“You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. # Ex 32:8; Dt 31:29; Mal 3:7 You have caused many to stumble # Pr 4:16; Is 8:14-15; Hs 14:1 by your instruction. You have violated # Lit corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts. 9“So I in turn have made you despised # Mal 1:6-7 and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.” # Lv 19:15; Dt 10:17; Ps 82:2; Mt 22:16; 1Tm 5:21; Jms 2:1,9

Judah’s Marital Unfaithfulness

10Don’t all of us have one Father? # Ex 4:22-23; Is 63:16; Hs 11:1; Mal 1:6; Jn 8:41 Didn’t one God create us? # Dt 32:6; Is 43:1-7; 64:8 Why then do we act treacherously against one another, # Ex 21:8; Jdg 9:23; Jb 6:15; Is 21:2; Jr 3:20 profaning # Nm 30:2; Ps 55:20; 89:34; Mal 1:12 the covenant of our fathers? # 1Kg 8:21 11Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestable # Lv 18:22-30; Ezr 9:1-14; Neh 13:4-9 thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned # Jr 16:18; Ezk 44:7 the Lord’s sanctuary, # Or profaned what is holy to the Lord # Ex 36:1-6; Zph 3:4 which He loves, # Ps 78:68-69 and has married the daughter of a foreign god. # = a woman who worshiped a foreign god # Dt 7:3-4; Ezr 9:1-2,10-14; Neh 13:23-30 12To the man who does this, may the Lord cut off # Ex 12:19; 31:14 any descendants # One Hb ms, LXX, DSS read off one witnessing or answering # Lit off one waking or answering ; Hb obscure # Ru 4:10; 1Sm 24:21 from the tents of Jacob, even if they present an offering to the Lord of Hosts.

13And this is another thing you do: you cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, # Ps 6:6-10 because He no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands. # 1Kg 8:28-30; Is 56:7

14Yet you ask, “For what reason? ” Because the Lord has been a witness # Gn 31:50-53; Jdg 11:10; 1Sm 12:5 between you and the wife of your youth. # Pr 2:16-17; 5:18; Is 54:6 You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partner # Ec 4:10 and your wife by covenant. # Ezk 16:8,59-62; Hs 2:16-20 15Didn’t the one God make us with a remnant of His life-breath? And what does the One seek? # Or Did the One not make them? So their flesh and spirit belong to Him, or No one who does this even has a remnant of the Spirit in him ; Hb obscure A godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, # Lit So guard yourselves in your spirit # Ex 23:13; Jos 23:11 and do not act treacherously against the wife of your youth.

16“If he hates # Gn 29:31; Dt 21:15-17; 22:13,16; Jdg 15:2; Pr 30:23 and divorces his wife, # Dt 24:1-4” says the Lord God of Israel, “he # Or The Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce and the one who covers his garment with injustice,” # Gn 6:11,13; Ps 73:6; Jr 22:3; Hab 1:2-3 says the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, # Lit Therefore, guard yourselves in your spirit and do not act treacherously.

Judgment at the Lord’s Coming

17You have wearied the Lord # Is 43:22-24 with your words.

Yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him? ”

When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and He is pleased with them,” # Dt 25:16; Mal 3:15 or “Where is the God of justice? ” # Neh 9:33; Is 40:27

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Malachi 2: HCSB

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