01.8. Malachi New Metrical Translation
NEW METRICAL TRANSLATION
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SECTION I Jehovah’s distinguishing Love to Israel (Malachi 1:1-6).
1 The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel, by the hand of Malachi.
2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah, And if ye say, “Wherein hast thou loved us?” Was not Esau brother to Jacob? saith Jehovah, And yet I loved Jacob, 3 And Esau I hated; And made his mountains a desolation, And his inheritance for the jackals of the desert.
4 Although Edom say, “We are ruined, Yet will we build again the ruins;”
Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts;
They may build, but I will pull down; And men shall call them, “The land of wickedness; And the people against whom Jehovah is angry forever.”
5 And your eyes shall see it, and ye shall say, Great be Jehovah over the land of Israel!
SECTION II Rebuke of the Priests (Malachi 1:6 to Malachi 2:9) 6 A son honors his father, And a servant his master; But if I am a father, where is mine honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?
Saith Jehovah of Hosts to you, ye priests, that despise my name.
Yet ye say, “Wherewith have we despised thy name?”
7 In offering polluted bread upon mine altar. And if ye say, “Wherewith have we polluted thee?” In that ye say, “The table of the Lord is contemptible.” And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, (Ye say) “There is nothing evil!”
8 And when ye offer the lame and the sick, (Ye say), “There is nothing evil!”
Offer it then to thy governor; Will he be gracious to thee, Or accept thy person?
Saith Jehovah of Hosts.
9 And now, I pray you, beseech God to be gracious unto us!
(By your hand hath this been done !) Will he show favor, Saith Jehovah of Hosts?
10 O that some one of you would even shut the doors, That ye might not light the fire upon mine altar to no purpose!
I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of Hosts, And sacrifice from your hand I will not accept.
11 For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name shall be great among the nations, And in every place shall incense be offered to my name, And a pure offering; For my name shall be great among the nations.
12 But ye profane it, In that ye say, “The table of the Lord is polluted, And the fruit thereof, even its food, is contemptible.”
13 Ye say also, Behold, what weariness! And ye snuff at it, Saith Jehovah of Hosts. And ye bring that which is stolen, and lame, and sick, And present it for an offering! Shall I accept it from your hand?
Saith Jehovah.
14 And cursed be the deceiver, Who, when there is in his flock a male, Vows and sacrifices to Jehovah that which is blemished; For I am a great king, saith Jehovah of Hosts, And my name is feared among the nations.
1 And now, ye priests, this sentence is to you!
2 If ye will not hearken, If ye will not lay it to heart, To give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of Hosts, I will send a curse’ upon you, And I will curse your blessings;
Yea, I have cursed them already.
Because ye do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold I will rebuke for you the seed; And I will spread dung upon your faces, The dung of your solemn feasts, And ye shall be taken away to it.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent to you this sentence, That my covenant with Levi may continue, 5 Saith Jehovah of Hosts. My covenant with him was life and peace, And I gave them to him for fear, And he feared me, and reverenced my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, And unrighteousness was not found in his lips;
He walked with me in truth and equity, And turned many away from iniquity.
7 For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, And men should seek the law from his mouth; For he is a messenger of Jehovah of Hosts.
8 But ye have departed from the way, Ye have caused many to stumble at the law, And ye have made void the covenant with Levi, Saith Jehovah of Hosts;
Therefore will I also make you Despicable and base before all the people;
Because ye have not kept my ways, But have had respect to persons in the law.
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SECTION III Rebuke of Divorce and Mixed Marriages (Malachi 2:10-17) 10 Have we not all one Father?
Hath not one God created us?
Why do we act treacherously one toward another, And profane the Covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah hath acted treacherously, And an abomination is committed in Israel, and in Jerusalem, For Judah hath profaned the holy people of Jehovah, which He loveth, And hath married the daughter of a strange God.
12 Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man that doeth this, The waker and the answerer, And him that bringeth a sacrifice to Jehovah of Hosts.
13 And this second thing ye do, Ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, With weeping, and with groans, So that He hath no more regard to the offering, Nor accepts it as well-pleasing from your hand.
14 And if ye say, “Wherefore? (doth He not accept?)”
Because Jehovah has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth.
Against whom thou hast acted treacherously, While she was thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
15 But did He not make one (pair)?
Though He had a residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one?
He sought a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, And act not treacherously to the wife of thy youth!
16 For I hate divorce, Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, And him that covers with cruelty his garment.
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SECTION IV The Coming of the Angel of the Covenant for Judgment (Malachi 2:17 to Malachi 3:6) 17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, And if ye say, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” In that ye say, “Every evil doer Is good in the eyes of Jehovah, And in them He hath delight,”
Or, “Where is the God of judgment?”
1 Behold, I send my messenger, That he may prepare the way before me; And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, And the Angel of the Covenant, whom ye desire, Behold he comes, saith Jehovah of Hosts.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand at his appearing? For he is like the smelter’s fire, And like the lye of the washer.
3 And He will sit as a smelter, and purifier of silver, And will purify the sons of Levi, And will refine them, as gold and silver, That they may offer to Jehovah sacrifices in righteousness.
4 And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Jehovah, As in the days of former times, And as in past years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; And I will be a swift witness Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear for deceit, And against those who defraud the hireling of his wages, And oppress the widow and the fatherless, And turn aside the stranger from his right, And fear not me, saith Jehovah of Hosts.
6 For I, Jehovah, change not:
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
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SECTION V Rebuke for Neglect of Tithes and Offerings (Malachi 3:7-12) 7 From the days of your fathers ye have departed from mine ordinances, And have not kept them;
Return to me, and I will return to you, Saith Jehovah of Hosts. And ye say, “Wherein shall we return?” Will a man defraud God, that ye defrauded me?
“And ye say, “Wherein have we defrauded thee?” In the tithe and in the heave offering.
Ye are cursed with a curse.
Yet ye defraud me, even the whole nation.
10 Bring ye the whole tithe into the treasure house, That there may be food in my house, And prove me now herewith, Saith Jehovah of Hosts, If I will not open you the windows of heaven, And pour out upon you a blessing till there is not room enough.
11 And I will rebuke for you the devourer, That he may not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor will your vine be barren in the field, Saith Jehovah of Hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed, For ye shall be a joyful land, Saith Jehovah of Hosts.
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SECTION VI Retribution of the Righteous and the Wicked (Malachi 3) 13 Your words have been bold against me, saith Jehovah; And ye say, “What have we spoken with out another against thee?”
14 Ye have said, It is a vain thing to serve God, And what gain is it, that we have kept has ordinance, And walked mournfully because of Jehovah of Hosts?
15 For now we call the proud happy.
Yea, the doers of wickedness are built up, Yea, they have tempted God, and have been delivered.
16 Then those, who feared Jehovah, conversed with one another, And Jehovah attended and heard; And a book of remembrance was written before Him, For them that feared Jehovah, And that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be my property, saith Jehovah, In the day which I appoint, And I will spare them, As a man spareth his own son, that serveth him.
18 Then shall ye again discern [The difference] between the righteous and the wicked, Between him who serveth God, And him that serveth Him not.
IV. 1 For behold the day cometh, burning like a furnace, And all the proud, and every doer of wickedness shall be chaff, And the coming day shall burn them up, Saith Jehovah of Hosts, So that it will not leave them root nor branch.
2 But unto you, that fear my name, Shall the Sun of Righteousness arise With healing in his wings. And ye shall go forth, and leap [for joy], Like calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day which I appoint, saith Jehovah of Hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, Which I commanded him upon Horeb for all Israel, My statutes and my precepts!
5 Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet, Before the day of Jehovah come, The great and terrible day.
6 He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, And the heart of the sons to the fathers, That I may not come And smite the land with a curse.