Maleakhi 1:8

1:8 For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, ¹  is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them ²  to your governor! Will he be pleased with you ³  or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Maleakhi 1:13

1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ⁴  asks the Lord.

Maleakhi 2:2

2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ⁵  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ⁶  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart.

Maleakhi 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.

Maleakhi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁸  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ⁹ 

[1:8]  ¹ sn Offerings of animals that were lame or sick were strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law (see Deut 15:21).

[1:8]  ² tn Heb “it” (so NAB, NASB). Contemporary English more naturally uses a plural pronoun to agree with “the lame and sick” in the previous question (cf. NIV, NCV).

[1:8]  ³ tc The LXX and Vulgate read “with it” (which in Hebrew would be הֲיִרְצֵהוּ, hayirtsehu, a reading followed by NAB) rather than “with you” of the MT (הֲיִרְצְךָ, hayirtsÿkha). The MT (followed here by most English versions) is to be preferred because of the parallel with the following phrase פָנֶיךָ (fanekha, “receive you,” which the present translation renders as “show you favor”).

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[3:10]  ⁷ 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.”

[3:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ⁹ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.