Malachi 2:3
in Malachi 2Behold, 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Malachi 2
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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 Joe 1:13; Joe 2:14.)
This site's exposition
And now this decree is for you, O priests
on Malachi 2:1-4
The second dispute turns on the priests: "And now this decree is for you, O priests". If they will not honor His name, the LORD will "curse your blessings," and He has "already begun to curse them". Verse 4 names the aim, that "My covenant with Levi may continue".
This site's exposition
spread dung on your faces
The dung of a sin offering was carried outside the camp and burned under Exodus 29:14. Wesley calls this an expression of the greatest contempt. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the last clause to mean the priests would be carried out with the refuse.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vers. 3, 4.) Behold, I will cast the branch to you, and I will scatter the refuse of your solemnities upon your faces, and it shall take you away with it. And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the Lord of hosts.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Spread dung - It is an expression of the greatest contempt. Of your solemn feasts - Your most solemn days and feasts, shall be as loathsome to me as dung, and shall make you, who offer them as unclean, and loathsome, as if I had thrown the dung of those sacrifices into your faces.
When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the L ORD , and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? Corrupt practices are the genuine fruit and product of corrupt principles; and the badness of men's hearts and lives is owing to some loose atheistical notions which they have got and which they govern themselves by.
The ordinance of marriage, which is common to the world of mankind, and was instituted for the maintaining and keeping up of that; this was profaned both by the priests and by the people, in marrying strangers (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Behold, I will corrupt your seed,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
You shall get the dung of the maw as your perquisite, instead of the maw. one shall take you away with it--that is, ye shall be taken away with it; it shall cleave to you wherever ye go [MOORE].
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, Lev 7:32; Deu 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.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנְנִ֨י | hini | here I | H2005 → | |
| גֹעֵ֤ר | goer | [am] about to rebuke | H1605 → | |
| לָכֶם֙ | lakhem | of you | ||
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַזֶּ֔רַע | hazera' | the offspring | H2233 → | |
| וְזֵרִ֤יתִי | vezeriti | and I will spread | H2219 → | |
| פֶ֙רֶשׁ֙ | feresh | dung | H6569 → | |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| פְּנֵיכֶ֔ם | peneikhem | faces your | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| פֶּ֖רֶשׁ | peresh | [the] dung of | H6569 → | |
| חַגֵּיכֶ֑ם | chageikhem | festivals your | H2282 → | |
| וְנָשָׂ֥א | venasa' | and someone will carry away | H5375 → | 656 times |
| אֶתְכֶ֖ם | ʾetkhem | <obj.> you | H853 → | 10935 times |
| אֵלָֽיו׃ | ʾelav | with it | H413 → | 5510 times |
הִנְנִ֨יhere I
hiniH2005 →
גֹעֵ֤ר[am] about to rebuke
goerH1605 →
לָכֶם֙of you
lakhem
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַזֶּ֔רַעthe offspring
hazera'H2233 →
וְזֵרִ֤יתִיand I will spread
vezeritiH2219 →
פֶ֙רֶשׁ֙dung
fereshH6569 →
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
פְּנֵיכֶ֔םfaces your
peneikhemH6440 →2123 times
פֶּ֖רֶשׁ[the] dung of
pereshH6569 →
חַגֵּיכֶ֑םfestivals your
chageikhemH2282 →
וְנָשָׂ֥אand someone will carry away
venasa'H5375 →656 times
אֶתְכֶ֖ם<obj.> you
ʾetkhemH853 →10935 times
אֵלָֽיו׃with it
ʾelavH413 →5510 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 29:14But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
it leads to
- Leviticus 4:21
Then he is to take the bull outside the camp and burn it, just as he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly.
- Leviticus 4:11–12
But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, with its head and legs and its entrails and dung—
- Leviticus 4:21
Through
Malachi 2:9“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 2:30
Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it…
- Deuteronomy 1:17
Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I…
- 1 Samuel 2:30
Through
Nahum 3:6I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.
it leads to
- Malachi 2:9
“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
- Malachi 2:9
Through
Job 20:7he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
it leads to
- Job 14:10
But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- 1 Kings 14:10
Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house…
- Job 8:18
If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
- Job 14:10
Where this verse is studied
About Malachi
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Malachi; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.