Malachi 2:3

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!

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.

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].

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.

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 "Priests, this rule is for you. ² Listen to me! Pay attention to what I say. Show honor to my name. If you don't respect my name, bad things will happen to you. You will say blessings, but they will become curses. I will make bad things happen because you don't show respect for my name." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. ³ "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! ⁴ Then you will learn why I am giving you this command. I am telling you these things so that my agreement with Levi will continue." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. ⁵ The Lord said, "I made that agreement with Levi. I promised to give him life and peace—and I gave him those things. Levi respected me and showed honor to my name. ⁶ He taught the true teachings and didn't teach lies. Levi was honest, and he loved peace. He followed me and saved many people from being punished for the evil things they did. ⁷ A priest should know God's teachings. People should be able to go to a priest and learn God's teachings. A priest should be the Lord 's messenger to the people. ⁸ "But you priests stopped following me! You used the teachings to make people do wrong. You ruined the agreement with Levi." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. ⁹ "You don't live the way I told you. You have not accepted my teachings. So I will cause people to hate you and think you are worth nothing."

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
God finished the work he was doing, so on the seventh day he rested from his work.

Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day. He made it special because on that day he rested from all the work he did while creating the world.

Genesis 2:4
This is the story about the creation of the sky and the earth. This is what happened when the Lord God made the earth and the sky.

Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living thing.

Genesis 2:8
Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place named Eden. He put the man he made in that garden.

Genesis 2:10
A river flowed from Eden and watered the garden. The river then separated and became four smaller rivers.

Genesis 2:11
The name of the first river was Pishon. This river flowed around the entire country of Havilah.

Genesis 2:12
(There is gold in that country, and that gold is pure. A kind of expensive perfume and onyx are also found there.)

Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river was Gihon. This river flowed around the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 2:14
The name of the third river was Tigris. This river flowed east of Assyria. The fourth river was 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.