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Malachi 2

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1 καὶ νῦν ἡ ἐντολὴ αὕτη πρὸς ὑμᾶς οἱ ἱερεῖς 2 ἐὰν μὴ ἀκούσητε καὶ ἐὰν μὴ θῆσθε εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ὑμῶν τοῦ δοῦναι δόξαν τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ καὶ ἐξαποστελῶ ἐ{F'} ὑμᾶς τὴν κατάραν καὶ ἐπικαταράσομαι τὴν εὐλογίαν ὑμῶν καὶ καταράσομαι αὐτήν καὶ διασκεδάσω τὴν εὐλογίαν ὑμῶν καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν ὅτι ὑμεῖς οὐ τίθεσθε εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ὑμῶν 3 ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀφορίζω ὑμῖν τὸν ὦμον καὶ σκορπιῶ ἤνυστρον ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσωπα ὑμῶν ἤνυστρον ἑορτῶν ὑμῶν καὶ λήμψομαι ὑμᾶς εἰς τὸ αὐτό 4 καὶ ἐπιγνώσεσθε διότι ἐγὼ ἐξαπέσταλκα πρὸς ὑμᾶς τὴν ἐντολὴν ταύτην τοῦ εἶναι τὴν διαθήκην μου πρὸς τοὺς Λευίτας λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ 5 ἡ διαθήκη μου ἦν με{T'} αὐτοῦ τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τῆς εἰρήνης καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῷ ἐν φόβῳ φοβεῖσθαί με καὶ ἀπὸ προσώπου ὀνόματός μου στέλλεσθαι αὐτόν 6 νόμος ἀληθείας ἦν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀδικία οὐχ εὑρέθη ἐν χείλεσιν αὐτοῦ ἐν εἰρήνῃ κατευθύνων ἐπορεύθη με{T'} ἐμοῦ καὶ πολλοὺς ἐπέστρεψεν ἀπὸ ἀδικίας 7 ὅτι χείλη ἱερέως φυλάξεται γνῶσιν καὶ νόμον ἐκζητήσουσιν ἐκ στόματος αὐτοῦ διότι ἄγγελος κυρίου παντοκράτορός ἐστιν 8 ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐξεκλίνατε ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ καὶ πολλοὺς ἠσθενήσατε ἐν νόμῳ διεφθείρατε τὴν διαθήκην τοῦ Λευι λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ 9 κἀγὼ δέδωκα ὑμᾶς ἐξουδενωμένους καὶ παρειμένους εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἀν{Q'} ὧν ὑμεῖς οὐκ ἐφυλάξασθε τὰς ὁδούς μου ἀλλὰ ἐλαμβάνετε πρόσωπα ἐν νόμῳ

1 It is for you, priests, to see that this law of mine is obeyed. 2 Give me neither heed nor hearing, says the Lord of hosts, let my name go unhonoured, and with sore distress I will visit you; falls my curse on all the blessings you enjoy, falls my curse …,[1] to the punishing of your heedlessness. 3 Arm of yours I will strike motionless, bury your faces in dung, ay, the dung of your own sacrifices, and to the dung-pit you shall go. 4 So you shall learn your lesson; my law I gave you, says the Lord of hosts, in token of my covenant with Levi’s family. 5 Live they should and thrive, but the fear of me I enjoined upon them; none but should fear, and hold my name in reverence. 6 Faithfully they handed on tradition, the lie never on their lips; safe and straight was the path they trod at my side, and kept many from wrong-doing. 7 No utterance like a priest’s for learning; from no other lips men will expect true guidance; is he not a messenger[2] to them from the Lord of hosts? 8 That path you have forsaken; through your ill teaching, how many a foothold lost! Nay, says the Lord of hosts, you have annulled my covenant with Levi altogether. 9 What wonder if I have made you a laughing-stock, a thing contemptible in all men’s sight, priests that so ill kept my command, gave award so partially?

1 Et nunc ad vos mandatum hoc, o sacerdotes. 2 Si nolueritis audire, et si nolueritis ponere super cor, ut detis gloriam nomini meo, ait Dominus exercituum, mittam in vos egestatem, et maledicam benedictionibus vestris, et maledicam illis, quoniam non posuistis super cor. 3 Ecce ego projiciam vobis brachium, et dispergam super vultum vestrum stercus solemnitatum vestrarum, et assumet vos secum. 4 Et scietis quia misi ad vos mandatum istud, ut esset pactum meum cum Levi, dicit Dominus exercituum. 5 Pactum meum fuit cum eo vitæ et pacis: et dedi ei timorem, et timuit me, et a facie nominis mei pavebat. 6 Lex veritatis fuit in ore ejus, et iniquitas non est inventa in labiis ejus: in pace et in æquitate ambulavit mecum, et multos avertit ab iniquitate. 7 Labia enim sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et legem requirent ex ore ejus, quia angelus Domini exercituum est. 8 Vos autem recessistis de via, et scandalizastis plurimos in lege: irritum fecistis pactum Levi, dicit Dominus exercituum. 9 Propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles, et humiles omnibus populis, sicut non servastis vias meas, et accepistis faciem in lege.

10 οὐχὶ θεὸς εἷς ἔκτισεν ὑμᾶς οὐχὶ πατὴρ εἷς πάντων ὑμῶν τί ὅτι ἐγκατελίπετε ἕκαστος τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ τοῦ βεβηλῶσαι τὴν διαθήκην τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν

10 Have we not all one Father, did not one God create us all? No room, then, for brother to despise brother, and unmake the covenant by which our fathers lived.[3]

10 Numquid non pater unus omnium nostrum? numquid non Deus unus creavit nos? quare ergo despicit unusquisque nostrum fratrem suum, violans pactum patrum nostrorum?

11 ἐγκατελείφθη Ιουδας καὶ βδέλυγμα ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ Ισραηλ καὶ ἐν Ιερουσαλημ διότι ἐβεβήλωσεν Ιουδας τὰ ἅγια κυρίου ἐν οἷς ἠγάπησεν καὶ ἐπετήδευσεν εἰς θεοὺς ἀλλοτρίους 12 ἐξολεθρεύσει κύριος τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν ποιοῦντα ταῦτα ἕως καὶ ταπεινωθῇ ἐκ σκηνωμάτων Ιακωβ καὶ ἐκ προσαγόντων θυσίαν τῷ κυρίῳ παντοκράτορι 13 καὶ ταῦτα ἃ ἐμίσουν ἐποιεῖτε ἐκαλύπτετε δάκρυσιν τὸ θυσιαστήριον κυρίου καὶ κλαυθμῷ καὶ στεναγμῷ ἐκ κόπων ἔτι ἄξιον ἐπιβλέψαι εἰς θυσίαν ἢ λαβεῖν δεκτὸν ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν 14 καὶ εἴπατε ἕνεκεν τίνος ὅτι κύριος διεμαρτύρατο ἀνὰ μέσον σοῦ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον γυναικὸς νεότητός σου ἣν ἐγκατέλιπες καὶ αὐτὴ κοινωνός σου καὶ γυνὴ διαθήκης σου 15 καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος ἐποίησεν καὶ ὑπόλειμμα πνεύματος αὐτοῦ καὶ εἴπατε τί ἄλλο ἀλ{L'} ἢ σπέρμα ζητεῖ ὁ θεός καὶ φυλάξασθε ἐν τῷ πνεύματι ὑμῶν καὶ γυναῖκα νεότητός σου μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃς 16 ἀλλὰ ἐὰν μισήσας ἐξαποστείλῃς λέγει κύριος ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ισραηλ καὶ καλύψει ἀσέβεια ἐπὶ τὰ ἐνθυμήματά σου λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ καὶ φυλάξασθε ἐν τῷ πνεύματι ὑμῶν καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐγκαταλίπητε

11 Here is great wrong in Juda, here are foul deeds done by Israel and Jerusalem![4] Juda, that was once content to be set apart for the Lord, has profaned that holy estate, has taken wives that worship a god he knew not. 12 Doer of such a deed, set he or followed the ill example, shall be lost to the dwelling-place of Jacob, for all his offerings made to the Lord of hosts. 13 And anon, weeping and wailing, you drench the Lord’s altar with your tears! What marvel if I heed your sacrifices no more, gift of yours is none can appease me? 14 And the reason of it? Because the Lord bears witness to her wrongs, that wife of thy manhood’s age, whom now thou spurnest, thy partner, thy covenanted bride! 15 Yet doer of this is the same man as ever, the will of him is unchanged; he asks nothing better, now as before, than to breed a God-fearing race; to that will, men of Juda, keep true. Spurn her not, the wife of thy manhood’s age; 16 what though the God of Israel gives thee leave to send her away if she suits thee ill? Garment of her, says the Lord of hosts, is yet stained with the wrong thou didst her. Will of thine forgo not, wife of thine spurn not.[5]

11 Transgressus est Juda, et abominatio facta est in Israël et in Jerusalem, quia contaminavit Juda sanctificationem Domini, quam dilexit, et habuit filiam dei alieni. 12 Disperdet Dominus virum qui fecerit hoc, magistrum et discipulum, de tabernaculis Jacob, et offerentem munus Domino exercituum. 13 Et hoc rursum fecistis: operiebatis lacrimis altare Domini, fletu et mugitu, ita ut non respiciam ultra ad sacrificium, nec accipiam placabile quid de manu vestra. 14 Et dixistis: Quam ob causam? Quia Dominus testificatus est inter te et uxorem pubertatis tuæ, quam tu despexisti: et hæc particeps tua, et uxor fœderis tui. 15 Nonne unus fecit, et residuum spiritus ejus est? et quid unus quærit, nisi semen Dei? custodite ergo spiritum vestrum, et uxorem adolescentiæ tuæ noli despicere. 16 Cum odio habueris, dimitte, dicit Dominus Deus Israël: operiet autem iniquitas vestimentum ejus, dicit Dominus exercituum. Custodite spiritum vestrum, et nolite despicere.

17 οἱ παροξύνοντες τὸν θεὸν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις ὑμῶν καὶ εἴπατε ἐν τίνι παρωξύναμεν αὐτόν ἐν τῷ λέγειν ὑμᾶς πᾶς ποιῶν πονηρόν καλὸν ἐνώπιον κυρίου καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς εὐδόκησεν καί ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς τῆς δικαιοσύνης

17 Oh, but the Lord is aweary of your doings! And little wonder, when you think so amiss of him; telling yourselves, Foul is fair in the Lord’s sight, and wrong-doing well likes him; God that judges us is none.

17 Laborare fecistis Dominum in sermonibus vestris, et dixistis: In quo eum fecimus laborare? In eo quod dicitis: Omnis qui facit malum bonus est in conspectu Domini, et tales ei placent: aut certe ubi est Deus judicii?

[1] The repetition, ‘falls my curse’, is difficult to explain, except on the supposition that a word or two has dropped out in the manuscripts.

[2] Here, as often elsewhere, the Latin translates ‘angel’.

[3] This verse does not seem closely connected either with what precedes it or with what follows it. The prophet may have been thinking of other misdemeanours, such as those mentioned in Neh. 5.

[4] This difficult passage, verses 11-16, is generally understood as referring to the intermarriage of the Jews with surrounding nations; cf. Esd. 9 and 10. But Malachy’s protest is concerned only with foreign brides, not with foreign bridegrooms; and he seems only to envisage those cases in which a Jewish wife has been divorced to make room for a Gentile rival.

[5] Literally, ‘Did not one man do (or, make)? And his spirit is left surviving. And what does one man seek, except the seed of God? Guard therefore your spirits, and do not despise the wife of thy youth. When thou hatest her, dismiss her, says the Lord, the God of Israel; but wrong shall cover her (or, his) garment, says the Lord of hosts. Guard your spirits, and do not despise’. The Hebrew text, which gives ‘his (not her) garment’, is even more obscure throughout; and numerous explanations have been suggested, without throwing much light on the passage.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd