Malachi 2

This is a vexing verse to translate. It talks about God putting a curse on the “seed” of the priests, and about someone carrying the priests away to “it.” What seed? Who’s carrying them away. And what’s does “it” refer to? Scholars make educated guesses. The King James Version of the Bible took the seed literally, as grain. But most interpret it as children of the priests. Is it God or some enemy of Israel who carries them away? Or are they carried away in their shame, perhaps the shame of insulting God. The “it” is a manure pile, literally a place outside the city where priests dispose of sacrificial refuse. But this could work as a symbol of their life of shame. People will give them all the distance of someone sitting in a manure pile outside Jerusalem—downwind most of the time. Prevailing winds in Israel are north to south. Jerusalem’s garbage dump was in Hinnom Valley, just south and southwest of Jerusalem

“God chose the Levites as Israel’s worship leaders” (Deuteronomy 21:5). Levites were a tribe of Israelites descended from Jacob’s son, Levi. Jacob had a dozen sons, and their descendants produced the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses and Aaron were both Levites. All of Israel’s priests were to come from Aaron’s descendants. The rest of the Levites were to serve as Israel’s assistant worship leaders. They maintained the worship center, served as security guards, and helped perform animal sacrifices, among their many other responsibilities. If it had to do with worship in Israel, the Levites were in charge.

“Love your neighbor just as you love yourself. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18).

. How Jews polluted the Temple is anyone’s guess. Literally, “they married the daughter of a foreign god.” That could mean they married non-Jews, who worshiped other gods. Or the Jews themselves married foreign gods. The first theory was popular among scholars in previous generations. The second is more popular today. One piece of support: the phrase is like something written earlier about the idol-worshiping women of Moab, who lured some Israelite men during the Exodus out of Egypt into worshiping their gods. That earlier phrase is perhaps most literally “children of Chemosh” (Numbers 21:29). That’s presented as the opposite of the children of God (Deuteronomy 32:19).

There are two popular ways to interpret what the writer is saying in 2:14-16. The most popular says he’s talking about marriage. The alternative is that the writer is using unfaithfulness in marriage to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. It seems some of the people are trying to worship idols and God, as though God is one of many gods instead of the one and only God. One reason to suspect that the alternative is the better option is because the main theme of the prophecy is “Don’t worship idols.” A snippet of marriage enrichment tucked into a theme like this seems misplaced. But the use of marriage as a symbol of a covenant agreement between God and Israel works nicely. Still, it could go the other way. Not everything in the sacred writings flows neatly down the stream. There are some rocky places along the way. This is one of them.