translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MAL

label: NET translator note

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


text: Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”


label: NET textual note

text: The phrase “discipline your children” is disputed. The LXX and Vulgate suppose זְרוֹעַ ( zÿroa ’, “arm”) for the MT זֶרַע ( zera ’, “seed”; hence, “children”). Then, for the MT גֹעֵר ( go ’ er , “rebuking”) the same versions suggest גָּרַע ( gara ’, “take away”). The resulting translation is “I am about to take away your arm” (cf. NAB “deprive you of the shoulder”). However, this reading is unlikely. It is common for a curse (v. 2 ) to fall on offspring (see, e.g., Deut 28:18, 32, 41, 53, 55, 57 ), but a curse never takes the form of a broken or amputated arm. It is preferable to retain the reading of the MT here.


text: The Hebrew term פֶרֶשׁ ( feresh , “offal”) refers to the entrails as ripped out in preparing a sacrificial victim (BDB 831 s.v. פֶּרֶשׁ ). This graphic term has been variously translated: “dung” (KJV, RSV, NRSV, NLT); “refuse” (NKJV, NASB); “offal” (NEB, NIV).


text: Heb “True teaching was in his mouth”; cf. NASB, NRSV “True instruction (doctrine NAB) was in his mouth.”


text: Heb “from his mouth” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).


text: The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה ( battorah ) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7 ).


text: Or “the Levitical covenant.”


text: Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”


text: Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.


text: Heb “tents,” used figuratively for the community here (cf. NCV, TEV); NLT “the nation of Israel.”


text: Heb “every man who does this, him who is awake and him who answers.” For “answers” the LXX suggests an underlying Hebrew text of עָנָה (’ anah , “to be humbled”), and then the whole phrase is modified slightly: “until he is humbled.” This requires also that the MT עֵר (’ er , “awake”) be read as עֵד (’ ed , “until”; here the LXX reads ἕως , Jews ). The reading of the LXX is most likely an alteration to correct what is arguably a difficult text. tn Heb “every man who does this, him who is awake and him who answers.” The idea seems to be a merism expressing totality, that is, everybody from the awakener to the awakened, thus “every last person who does this” (NLT similar); NIV “whoever he may be.”


text: Heb “the Lord is a witness between you and [between] the wife of your youth.”


text: 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).


text: 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 ).


text: 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). 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 (–10).


text: 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.


text: Heb “in the eyes of the Lord .”