Malachi — Hebrew and Greek compared
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
SAINTS TRANSLATION
Malachi
V1 • Working translation draft • Sep 8, 2026
Final manuscript review: all fifty-five Hebrew and fifty-five Greek verses, their independent English renderings, alignment and comparison notes were checked against the complete publisher BHS and Rahlfs–Hanhart main texts. Rashi on 1:11, Justin Martyr, Dialogue 41, and Luke 1:16–17 were verified in the registered presentations. Greek ending order and difficult 2:15–16 remain preserved. Critical apparatus collation, exhaustive reception and independent specialist review remain outstanding. Review date: Sep 11, 2026.
3 chapters • 55 translation rows
Reader’s guide
Read across each row to compare independent literal-smooth English renderings of the declared Hebrew and Greek texts. Rabbinic Priority and Saints Priority identify interpretive traditions, not alternate sources of biblical wording. Actual source references remain visible.
The accessed Hebrew and Greek editions both have three chapters, with 14, 17 and 24 verses. Hebrew 3:19–24 corresponds to 4:1–6 in many English Bibles. The ending is reordered and renumbered in the declared Greek: Hebrew 3:22 (Moses) aligns with Greek 3:24; Hebrew 3:23 (Elijah) with Greek 3:22; Hebrew 3:24 (the hearts) with Greek 3:23. Rows follow Hebrew navigation and explicitly identify the Greek references. The Greek reading sequence is therefore rows 3:1–21, 3:23, 3:24, 3:22. Every source verse appears once. The Greek sentence across 3:6–7 continues through its printed verse boundary.
Source basis and review scope
Hebrew: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition (1997). Greek: Rahlfs–Hanhart Septuaginta, second revised edition (2006). Complete running texts were directly checked; the registered reception passages were consulted selectively.
Same: corresponding meaning. Similar: modest expression or emphasis difference. Different: meaningful specific detail. Divergent: addition, omission, or rearrangement. Disparate: major difference in meaning or consequence. Each row uses one governing category under the updated project reference.
Sources, Method & Decisions
Source register
[BHS1] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS2] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS3] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX1] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX2] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX3] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Malachi 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[RASHI-MAL] Rashi, Commentary on Malachi 1:11; Chabad.org bilingual presentation. Scope: Commentary on 1:11. Access: Direct reading of displayed Hebrew and English commentary; biblical English not used as a base. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[JUSTIN-MAL] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 41; Marcus Dods and George Reith translation, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885), New Advent transcription. Scope: Chapter 41, application of Malachi 1:10–12 to the Eucharist. Access: Direct English translation of patristic reception; Greek text of Justin not collated. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LUK1] Nestle–Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, twenty-eighth revised edition (2012), German Bible Society official online text. Scope: Luke 1:16–17, John, Elijah and restored hearts. Access: Direct Greek passage for apostolic reception; not a base for Malachi. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
Contextual term record
מלאכי / ἄγγελος αὐτοῦ → Malachi / His messenger. 1:1; preserve the named Hebrew designation and translated Greek designation. Messenger is not automatically an angelic species.
יהוה צבאות / κύριος παντοκράτωρ → YHWH of hosts / Lord Almighty. Retain each source expression throughout the repeated speech formulas.
מנחה / θυσία → offering / sacrifice. The repeated cultic terms are translated consistently; minḥāh is not automatically specified as grain where this text leaves its material unstated.
זרע / ὦμος → seed / shoulder. 2:3; a consequential source difference, retained without conjecturally correcting either source.
פרש / ἤνυστρον → dung / stomach. 2:3; Greek names the ruminant stomach or fourth stomach. The degrading cultic image remains concrete.
בגד / ἐγκαταλείπω → act treacherously / abandon. Preserve the different verbs in the marriage and covenant accusations of chapter two.
תרומה / ἀπαρχή → contribution / firstfruits. 3:8; related offerings are not reduced to a single English label.
זדים / ἀλλότριοι, ἀλλογενεῖς → arrogant / outsiders, foreigners. 3:15,19; Greek identifies outsiders where Hebrew identifies arrogance. The comparison preserves the changed targets without endorsing prejudice.
חרם / ἄρδην → ban of destruction / utterly. Hebrew 3:24 / Greek 3:23; Hebrew specifies the ban, Greek expresses totality.
Material decisions
Independently translated every verse of the complete directly accessed BHS and Rahlfs–Hanhart running texts, chapters one through three. Edition footers were checked; no apparatus or manuscript collation is claimed.
Preserved the final three verses’ different order and numbers. Hebrew navigation rows carry explicit Greek references; the Greek sequence is separately stated.
Retained the Greek continuation across 3:6–7, the added clauses of 1:1, 1:7, 2:2 and 3:5, and the changed agents and judgments in chapters two and three.
Did not harmonize the difficult Greek gifts of a wilderness, plunder in his house, or instruction for food to familiar Hebrew-based wording. Their tentative interpretation is visible in notes and open questions.
Kept Malachi 2:15–16 provisional and did not conceal its elliptical grammar behind an unqualified doctrinal paraphrase. The selected Hebrew reading of 2:16 concerns the man who hates and dismisses.
Distinguished a priest or prophetic messenger from a heavenly messenger unless the immediate passage supplies that identification. Ambiguous messenger pronouns in 3:1–3 remain lower case. At 2:11, lowercase he likewise leaves the implicit loving subject open between Judah and the Lord.
Used selective directly checked Rashi, Justin Martyr and Luke reception only. Later interpretation is not a textual variant and is not merged into either translation.
Source chapter and verse references remain visible throughout.
Open questions
Malachi 1:3: review the contextual force of Greek dómata erēmou, presently rendered literally as gifts of a wilderness, with a specialist lexicon and apparatus.
Malachi 1:10,12: review the force of ḥinnām/dōrean and the difficult Hebrew nîḇô … ʾoḵlô construction.
Malachi 2:3,5,12: review the indefinite carrier in Hebrew 2:3, the syntax of môrāʾ in 2:5, and ʿēr weʿōneh and the Greek removal/humbling construction in 2:12.
Malachi 2:15–16: independent specialist review is needed for the antecedents of one/other, the remnant of spirit, the opening question, the seeker of offspring, and the subject and syntax of hating and sending away. The present version is a transparent working choice.
Malachi 3:1–3: review messenger identifications and pronoun capitalization after exegetical review; this draft does not decide all figures’ identity by capitalization.
Malachi 3:9–11: review the Greek looking-away repetition, the past tense of brought, the third-person house/plunder clause and diastelō hymin eis brōsin against the apparatus and specialist lexica.
Malachi 3:16–17: review the Greek connection of these things to the preceding complaint and the range of peripoiēsis, rendered acquisition.
The comparison categories are editorial judgments about the two declared main texts and should receive an independent review before a publication edition.
Classification totals
Divergent: 6 • Same: 6 • Different: 26 • Similar: 5 • Disparate: 12. Counting unit: one aligned verse row. These are affected rows, not unique textual variants.
Disparate index
1:13, 2:3, 2:11, 2:15, 2:16, 3:6, 3:9, 3:10, 3:11, 3:15, 3:19, 3:24