Maleakhi 2:1

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

Maleakhi 4:4

Restoration through the Lord

4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb ¹  I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. ² 

Maleakhi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ³  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ⁴  A scroll ⁵  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

Maleakhi 2:4

2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ⁶  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ⁷  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ⁸  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Maleakhi 2:15

2:15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ⁹  What did our ancestor ¹⁰  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. ¹¹ 

[4:4]  ¹ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).

[4:4]  ² tn Heb “which I commanded him in Horeb concerning all Israel, statutes and ordinances.”

[3:16]  ³ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ⁵ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

[2:4]  ⁶ sn My covenant refers to the priestly covenant through Aaron and his grandson Phinehas (see Exod 6:16-20; Num 25:10-13; Jer 33:21-22). The point here is to contrast the priestly ideal with the disgraceful manner in which it was being carried out in postexilic times.

[2:16]  ⁷ tc The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2,10-16,” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after כִּי (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form שָׂנֵא can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[2:16]  sn Though the statement “I hate divorce” may (and should) be understood as a comprehensive biblical principle, the immediate context suggests that the divorce in view is that of one Jewish person by another in order to undertake subsequent marriages. The injunction here by no means contradicts Ezra’s commands to Jewish men to divorce their heathen wives (Ezra 9–10).

[2:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “him who covers his garment with violence” (similar ASV, NRSV). Here “garment” is a metaphor for appearance and “violence” a metonymy of effect for cause. God views divorce as an act of violence against the victim.

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and not one has done, and a remnant of the spirit to him.” The very elliptical nature of the statement suggests it is proverbial. The present translation represents an attempt to clarify the meaning of the statement (cf. NASB).

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the one.” This is an oblique reference to Abraham who sought to obtain God’s blessing by circumventing God’s own plan for him by taking Hagar as wife (Gen 16:1-6). The result of this kind of intermarriage was, of course, disastrous (Gen 16:11-12).

[2:15]  ¹¹ sn The wife he took in his youth probably refers to the first wife one married (cf. NCV “the wife you married when you were young”).