Malachi 2:3

Amplified Bible

"Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed, and I will spread the refuse on your faces, the refuse from the festival offerings; and you will be taken away with it [in disgrace].

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants, and I will spread animal waste over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, and you will be taken away with it.

King James Version (1611)
Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread doung vpon your faces, euen the doung of your solemne feasts, and one shall take you away with it.

King James Version
Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

English Standard Version
Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.

New American Standard Bible
"Behold, I am going to rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

New Century Version
"I will punish your descendants. I will smear your faces with the animal insides left from your feasts, and you will be thrown away with it.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Behold, I wil corrupt your seede, and cast dongue vpon your faces, euen the dongue of your solemne feastes, and you shall be like vnto it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

Berean Standard Bible
Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it."

Contemporary English Version
I will punish your descendants and rub your faces in the manure from your animal sacrifices, and then be done with you.

Complete Jewish Bible
I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off with it.

Darby Translation
Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your feasts; and they shall take you away with it.

Easy-to-Read Version
"Look, I will punish your descendants. During the festivals, you priests offer sacrifices to me. You take the dung and inside parts from the dead animals and throw them away. But I will smear the dung on your faces, and you will be thrown away with it!

George Lamsa Translation
Behold, I will rebuke the seed of the ground, and spread dung upon your faces, even dung upon your solemn feasts; and I will cause you to be taken away with it.

Good News Translation
I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice—and you will be taken out to the dung heap.

Lexham English Bible
Look! I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will scatter offal on your faces, the offal of your religious feasts, and you will be carried to it.

Literal Translation
Behold, I am rebuking your seed, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and one will lift you up to it.

American Standard Version
Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it.

Bible in Basic English
See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, I will rebuke the seed for your hurt, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your sacrifices; and ye shall be taken away unto it.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Beholde, I wyll corrupt your seede, and cast doung on your faces, [euen] the doung of your solempne feastes, & you shalbe like vnto it.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, I turn my back upon you, and I will scatter dung upon your faces, the dung of your feasts, and I will carry you away at the same time.

English Revised Version
Behold, I will rebuke the seed for your sake, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your sacrifices; and ye shall be taken away with it.

World English Bible
Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! Y schal caste to you the arm, and Y schal scatere on youre cheere the drit of youre solempnytees, and it schal take you with it.

Update Bible Version
Look, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread feces on your faces, even the feces of your feasts; and you shall be taken away with it.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, [even] the dung of your solemn feasts; and [one] shall take you away with it.

New English Translation
I am about to discipline your children and will spread offal on your faces, the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

New King James Version
"Behold, I will rebuke your descendants And spread refuse on your faces, The refuse of your solemn feasts; And one will take you away with it.

New Living Translation
I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.

New Life Bible
I will speak sharp words to your children. I will spread animal waste on your faces, the waste of your special suppers. And you will be taken away with it.

New Revised Standard
I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Behold me! threatening, on your account, the seed, and I will scatter refuse upon your faces, the refuse of your festivals, - and one shall carry you away unto it;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it.

Revised Standard Version
Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, I am pushing away before you the seed, And have scattered dung before your faces, Dung of your festivals, And it hath taken you away with it.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, I shal corruppe youre sede, and cast donge in youre faces: euen the donge of youre solempne feastes and it shal cleue fast vpon you.

Contextual Overview

¹"Now, O priests, this commandment is for you. ²"If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name," says the LORD of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings [on the people]. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. ³"Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed, and I will spread the refuse on your faces, the refuse from the festival offerings; and you will be taken away with it [in disgrace].⁴"Then you will know [without any doubt] that I have sent this [new] commandment to you (priests), that My covenant may continue with Levi [the priestly tribe]," says the LORD of hosts. ⁵"My covenant with Levi was [one of] life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he [and the priests] feared Me and stood in reverent awe of My name. ⁶"True instruction was in Levi's mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from wickedness. ⁷"For the lips of the priest should guard and preserve knowledge [of My law], and the people should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. ⁸"But as for you [priests], you have turned from the way and you have caused many to stumble by your instruction [in the law]. You have violated the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts. ⁹"So I have also made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality [to people] in [your administration of] the law."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will: Joel 1:17

corrupt: or reprove

spread: Heb. scatter, Malachi 2:9, 1 Samuel 2:29, 1 Samuel 2:30, 1 Kings 14:10, 2 Kings 9:36, 2 Kings 9:37, Job 20:7, Psalms 83:10, Jeremiah 8:2, Nahum 3:6, Luke 14:35, 1 Corinthians 4:13

one shall take you away with it: or, it shall take you away to it

Reciprocal: Leviticus 21:9 - the daughter Numbers 31:23 - abide Deuteronomy 28:18 - the fruit of thy body 2 Kings 5:27 - leprosy Psalms 7:16 - General Philippians 3:8 - but dung 1 Peter 1:23 - not

Cross-References

Genesis 2:2
And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Genesis 2:3
So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it [as His own, that is, set it apart as holy from other days], because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and done.

Genesis 2:4
This is the history of [the origin of] the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day [that is, days of creation] that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens—

Genesis 2:7
then the LORD God formed [that is, created the body of] man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being [an individual complete in body and spirit].

Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden (oasis) in the east, in Eden (delight, land of happiness); and He put the man whom He had formed (created) there.

Genesis 2:10
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four [branching] rivers.

Genesis 2:11
The first [river] is named Pishon; it flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Genesis 2:12
The gold of that land is good; bdellium (a fragrant, valuable resin) and the onyx stone are found there.

Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the entire land of Cush [in Mesopotamia].

Genesis 2:14
The third river is named Hiddekel (Tigris); it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, I will corrupt your seed,.... Or, "the seed for you" r; that is, for your sake, as Kimchi and Ben Melech explain it; meaning the seed they cast into the earth, which the Lord threatens to corrupt and destroy; so that it should not spring up again, and bring forth any increase: or, "rebuke" s it, as the word sometimes signifies; and so the Targum,

"behold, I will rebuke you in the increase, the fruit (son) of the seed.''

The sense is the same; corrupting the seed being a rebuke to them; and rebuking the seed being a corruption of that, or hindering it from growing up. It is a threatening of a sore famine that should be in the Jewish nation; and which Cocceius thinks was that which happened in the days of Claudius Caesar, Acts 11:28. The Septuagint version renders it, "behold, I separate to you the shoulder"; the Arabic version, "the right hand", or arm; and the Vulgate Latin is, "behold, I will cast forth to you the arm"; the right shoulder of the sacrifice, which was given to the priests, and here threatened to be cast to them with indignation, Leviticus 7:32 but the former sense is best:

and spread dung upon your faces, [even] the dung of your solemn feasts; that is, the dung of their beasts which were slain for sacrifice at their solemn feasts: so this word חג is used for a beast offered for sacrifice at a festival, Psalms 118:27. The sense is, that their sacrifices and solemn feasts were so far from being acceptable to God, that he would reject both them and their persons, and would cast the very dung of the creatures brought for sacrifice into their faces, and spread it over them: a phrase expressive of the utmost contempt of them, and of exposing them to the greatest shame and confusion for their sins. So the Targum,

"I will make manifest the shame of your sins upon your faces; and will cause to cease the magnificence of your feasts.''

The Septuagint render it, the ventricle, or "maw"; which was given to the priests, Deuteronomy 18:3 and in which the dung was contained:

and [one] shall take you away with it; with the dung spread upon them; they looking like a heap of dung, being covered with it, and had in no more account than that: or "to it" t; that is, as Jarchi explains it, to the dung of the beasts of your sacrifices they shall carry you; or you shall be carried to it, that ye may be rejected and despised as that. Kimchi's note is

"the iniquity (you are guilty of) shall carry you to this contempt; measure for measure; you have despised me, and ye shall be despised:''

or "with him", or "to himself" u; meaning he, or it that shall take them away; either the wind or dung; or the enemy, as Aben Ezra interprets it; by whom the Romans may be designed, who took them away out of their own land, and carried them captive. According to the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, this is to be understood of God, who render the words, "I will take you together", or "with it".

r לכם "propter vos", Munster, Drusius. s גער "increpabo", Tigurine version; "increpo", Drusius, Cocceius; "increpans", Burkius. t אליו, εις το αυτο, Sept.; "ad istud", so some in Vatablus, De Dieu. u "Ad se", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Tigurine version: Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Calvin, Burkius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lo, I will rebuke the seed for your sake - ^o, i. e., that it should not grow. He who worketh by His sustaining will all the operations of nature, would at His will withhold them. Neither priests nor Levites cultivated the soil; yet, since the tithes were assigned to them, the diminution of the harvest affected them. The meal-offering too was a requisite part of the sacrifice. (See also Joel 1:13; Joel 2:14.)

And spread dung upon your phaces, the dung ^o of your solemn feasts - , or, “of your sacrifices.” It was by the law carried without the camp and burned with the animal itself. They had brought before the face of God maimed, unfitting sacrifices; they should have them cast back, with their refuse, upon them; “as a lord that rejecteth a gift, brought to him by his servant, casts it back in his time.” “Of your sacrifices, not of Mine, for I am not worshiped in them: ye seek to please, not Me, but yourselves.” So God said of Eli 1 Samuel 2:30, “them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”

And one shall take you away with it - , literally “to it.” They should be swept away, as if they were an appendage to it, as God said 1 Kings 14:10, “I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, until all be gone.” As are the offerings, so shall it be with the offerers.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Malachi 2:3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed — So as to render it unfruitful. Newcome translates, - "I will take away from you the shoulder." This was the part that belonged to the priest, Leviticus 7:32; Deuteronomy 18:3.

Spread dung upon your faces — Instead of receiving a sacrifice at your hands, I will throw your offerings back into your faces. Here God shows his contempt for them and their offerings.