Malachi 2:3

THE MESSAGE

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.

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"And now this indictment, you priests! If you refuse to obediently listen, and if you refuse to honor me, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, in worship, then I'll put you under a curse. I'll exchange all your blessings for curses. In fact, the curses are already at work because you're not serious about honoring me. Yes, and the curse will extend to your children. I'm going to plaster your faces with rotting garbage, garbage thrown out from your feasts. That's what you have to look forward to! ⁴"Maybe that will wake you up. Maybe then you'll realize that I'm indicting you in order to put new life into my covenant with the priests of Levi, the covenant of God -of-the-Angel-Armies. My covenant with Levi was to give life and peace. I kept my covenant with him, and he honored me. He stood in reverent awe before me. He taught the truth and did not lie. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He kept many out of the ditch, kept them on the road. ⁷"It's the job of priests to teach the truth. People are supposed to look to them for guidance. The priest is the messenger of God -of-the-Angel-Armies. But you priests have abandoned the way of priests. Your teaching has messed up many lives. You have corrupted the covenant of priest Levi. God -of-the-Angel-Armies says so. And so I am showing you up for who you are. Everyone will be disgusted with you and avoid you because you don't live the way I told you to live, and you don't teach my revelation truly and impartially."

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
By the seventh day God had finished his work. On the seventh day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day Because on that day he rested from his work, all the creating God had done. This is the story of how it all started, of Heaven and Earth when they were created.

Genesis 2:8
Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.

Genesis 2:10
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden and from there divides into four rivers. The first is named Pishon; it flows through Havilah where there is gold. The gold of this land is good. The land is also known for a sweet-scented resin and the onyx stone. The second river is named Gihon; it flows through the land of Cush. The third river is named Hiddekel and flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Genesis 2:15
God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.

Genesis 2:21
God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.

Exodus 23:12
"Work for six days and rest the seventh so your ox and donkey may rest and your servant and migrant workers may have time to get their needed rest.

Exodus 34:21
"Work six days and rest the seventh. Stop working even during plowing and harvesting.

Leviticus 23:3
"Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don't do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God .

Proverbs 10:22
God 's blessing makes life rich; nothing we do can improve on God.

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.