Malachi 2 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 2:3, 2:11, 2:15, 2:16
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Chapter 2
The priestly covenant and marital faithfulness
Verse 2:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:1 “And now this command is for you, priests.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:1 “And now this command is for you, priests.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The new command directly addresses the priests in both texts.
Verse 2:2 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:2 If you do not listen and do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says YHWH of hosts, “I will send the curse upon you and curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed it, because you do not take it to heart.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:2 If you do not listen and do not take it into your hearts to give glory to My name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send out the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessing, and I will curse it. I will scatter your blessing, and it will not be among you, because you do not take it into your hearts.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds dispersal and absence of the blessing and repeats a future curse; Hebrew says the curse has already been applied. Hebrew's plural blessings is followed by a singular suffix, retained as “it”; Greek consistently has a singular blessing.
Verse 2:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:3 Look, I am rebuking your seed. I will scatter dung on your faces, the dung of your festivals, and you will be carried away with it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:3 Look, I am setting apart the shoulder for you, and I will scatter the stomach on your faces, the stomach of your festivals, and I will take you to the same place.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew's rebuked seed becomes Greek's set-apart shoulder, changing the threatened agricultural or descendant loss into an allocation of a sacrificial portion. Hebrew dung differs from Greek ēnystron, a ruminant's stomach. The Hebrew final clause has an indefinite carrier; Greek explicitly makes God the one who takes them. The degrading image is retained.
Verse 2:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:4 You will know that I sent this command to you, so that My covenant with Levi might continue,” says YHWH of hosts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:4 You will recognize that I sent out this command to you, so that My covenant might be with the Levites,” says the Lord Almighty.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew names Levi singularly; Greek explicitly names the Levites. Both relate the command to the continuing covenant; “continue” makes Hebrew's purpose infinitive readable without adding a new covenant.
Verse 2:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:5 “My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him. It called for fear, and he feared Me; he stood in awe before My name.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:5 “My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave it to him in fear, to fear Me and to shrink back before My name.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew relates the gift of life and peace to Levi's actual fear and awe; Greek casts fearing and shrinking back as infinitives associated with the gift. Hebrew's compact môrāʾ clause is interpreted as the covenant's demand; its syntax remains a review point.
Verse 2:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:6 True instruction was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and turned many back from iniquity.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:6 A law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. Directing his way in peace, he walked with Me and turned many back from injustice.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both describe truthful teaching, innocent lips, peaceful conduct with God and the turning of many from wrongdoing. Greek's participle of directing a course corresponds to Hebrew's uprightness without changing the priest's moral role.
Verse 2:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:7 For a priest's lips should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of YHWH of hosts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:7 For a priest's lips will guard knowledge, and people will seek law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew's imperfects express the priestly norm here; Greek uses futures. Both make the priest a divine messenger entrusted with knowledge and instruction. The messenger word does not by itself designate a heavenly being.
Verse 2:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:8 But you have turned aside from the way, caused many to stumble through instruction, and corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says YHWH of hosts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:8 But you have turned aside from the way and weakened many through the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord Almighty.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew has causing many to stumble; Greek has making many weak. Both charge the priests with misusing instruction and corrupting Levi's covenant.
Verse 2:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:9 “So I too have made you despised and low before all the people, because you do not keep My ways but show partiality in instruction.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:9 “And I have made you despised and neglected among all the nations, because you did not guard My ways but showed partiality in the law.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew locates the priests' humiliation before all the people; Greek broadens this to all the nations and has “neglected” where Hebrew has “low.” Both explicitly condemn partiality.
Verse 2:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we act treacherously, each against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:10 Did not one God create you? Is there not one Father of you all? Why have you abandoned, each one his brother, so as to profane the covenant of your fathers?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The order of Father and Creator is reversed, and Hebrew's inclusive “we/us/our” becomes Greek's “you/your.” Hebrew names treachery; Greek names abandonment. The appeal to common origin and the ancestral covenant is shared.
Verse 2:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:11 Judah has acted treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy thing of YHWH that he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:11 Judah has been abandoned, and an abomination has occurred in Israel and Jerusalem, because Judah profaned the Lord's holy things, in which he delighted, and devoted himself to foreign gods.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew makes Judah the treacherous agent and names marriage to a foreign god's daughter; Greek first makes Judah abandoned and then describes devotion to foreign gods. The marital act becomes a direct account of religious allegiance. The singular Hebrew “holy thing” is not narrowed to a building without an explicit note. The subject of Hebrew loves and Greek delighted is not explicitly named; lowercase he leaves Judah or the Lord open rather than deciding the referent by typography.
Verse 2:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:12 May YHWH cut off from the tents of Jacob, for the man who does this, the one who is awake and the one who answers, and the one who presents an offering to YHWH of hosts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:12 The Lord will destroy the person who does these things, until he is also humbled away from Jacob's dwellings and from those who bring a sacrifice to the Lord Almighty.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew contains the difficult pair ʿēr weʿōneh, retained literally as the awake one and the answering one; Greek instead has a clause about being humbled and removed. Both threaten exclusion, but the Hebrew scope of the persons cut off and the Greek final construction require specialist review.
Verse 2:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:13 And this is a second thing you do: covering YHWH's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer turns toward the offering or accepts it with favor from your hands.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:13 And these things that I hated you were doing: you covered the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning from hardships. Is it still fitting to look toward a sacrifice or accept it from your hands?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew introduces a second offense and explains tears by rejected offerings; Greek introduces deeds God hated, names hardship, and asks a rhetorical question about acceptance. The altar and lament remain, but the connecting explanation differs.
Verse 2:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:14 But you say, “Why?” Because YHWH has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have acted treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:14 And you said, “For what reason?” Because the Lord bore witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you abandoned, though she is your partner and the wife of your covenant.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew's treachery is rendered by Greek as abandonment. Both identify the woman as the youth's wife, companion or partner, and covenant wife under divine witness.
Verse 2:15 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:15 Did not one do it, with a remnant of spirit belonging to him? And what was that one seeking? Offspring of God. So guard your spirit, and let no one act treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:15 And no other did it, and there was a remnant of his spirit. And you said, “What else does God seek but offspring?” So guard your spirit, and do not abandon the wife of your youth.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Both openings are elliptical and difficult. The provisional Hebrew retains “one” and his search for offspring of God without identifying him; Greek has “other,” adds “you said,” and explicitly makes God the seeker of offspring. This changes the stated agent of seeking. The antecedents, the supplied “it,” and the interrogative force of the Hebrew opening require specialist review; no creation or Abraham interpretation is inserted as settled text.
Verse 2:16 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:16 For one who hates and sends away, says YHWH, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says YHWH of hosts. So guard your spirit, and do not act treacherously.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:16 But if, after hating, you send her away, says the Lord, the God of Israel, impiety will cover your thoughts, says the Lord Almighty. So guard your spirit, and you must not abandon.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The Hebrew third-person construction is read provisionally of the divorcing man; it is not silently recast as an explicit first-person “I hate divorce.” Greek directly addresses a conditional dismissal and makes impiety cover thoughts rather than violence covering a garment. Both end by forbidding marital betrayal or abandonment. Hebrew's syntax and subject of hating are disputed and need specialist review.
Verse 2:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
2:17 You have wearied YHWH with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in YHWH's eyes, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
2:17 You who provoke God with your words! And you said, “How have we provoked Him?” By your saying, “Everyone who does evil is good before the Lord, and He has delighted in them,” and, “Where is the God of righteousness?”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew names wearying YHWH; Greek names provoking God. Hebrew presents the second claim with “or”; Greek joins it with “and.” Both accuse the speakers of reversing moral judgment and challenging divine justice.