unfoldingWord® Translation Questions
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| The burden of the word of Yahweh to Israel by the hand of Malachi. | This is a serious message from Yahweh. Yahweh gave it to Malachi to tell to the Israelite people. |
The word of Yahweh came by Malachi.
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| “I have loved you,” says Yahweh. But you say, “In what have you loved us?” “{Was} not Esau a brother to Jacob?” the declaration of Yahweh. “Yet I loved Jacob, | Yahweh says to the Israelites, “I have shown that I love you.” They may wonder what I mean and ask, “How have you shown love to us?” Yahweh would reply, “Esau and Jacob were brothers. I chose to love Jacob and his descendants. |
Yahweh loved Israel, Jacob, and he hated Esau.
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| but Esau I hated. And I made his mountains a desolation and his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” | But I did not favor Esau and his descendants. I turned Esau’s hill country into empty land. I let wild dogs live in the places where Esau’s people used to live.” |
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| Though Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the ruins,” thus says Yahweh of Armies: “They themselves may build, but I myself will tear down. And they will call them ‘the territory of wickedness’ and ‘the people whom Yahweh abhors forever.’ | The people of Edom, who are Esau’s descendants, might say, “Enemies have destroyed our towns, but we will rebuild them.” But Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says, “Even if they rebuild, I will tear down what they build. People will call Edom a land of evil people. They will say that Yahweh will always be angry with the people of Edom. |
Israel would respond by saying, “Great is Yahweh beyond the borders of Israel.”
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| And your eyes will see, and you yourselves will say, ‘Great is Yahweh beyond the border of Israel!’ | You Israelites will see this happen. Then you will say, ‘Even outside the land of Israel, people know that Yahweh is great!’” |
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| A son honors a father, and a servant his master. So if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?” says Yahweh of Armies to you, O priests, despisers of my name. But you say, “In what have we despised your name?” | Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says, “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. Since I am like a father to you, you should honor me, but you do not. Since I am your master, you should respect me, but you do not. I am saying this to you priests who do not respect me. You may wonder what I mean and ask, ‘How have we shown disrespect to you?’ |
Yahweh asked the priests where was the honor and reverence due his name, and why they despised his name and his table.
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| “{You are} presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, ‘In what have we defiled you?’ In your saying, ‘The table of Yahweh, it is despised.’ | You show disrespect by offering unacceptable sacrifices on my altar. You may wonder what I mean and ask, ‘How have we offered unacceptable sacrifices?’ I will tell you. You show disrespect by thinking that you can treat my altar with contempt. |
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| And when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Present it now to your governor. Will he accept you or lift up your face?” says Yahweh of Armies. | You bring blind animals to sacrifice to me. That is wrong. You bring animals that cannot walk or are sick. That is also wrong. If you gave animals like that to your governor, he would not be pleased with you, and he would not accept them.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
Yahweh would not accept blind, lame, and sick offerings, nor show favor or graciousness to Israel for them, nor receive Israel for offering them.
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| “And now, please entreat the face of God, that he may be gracious to us. This has been from your hand. Will he lift up your faces?” says Yahweh of Armies. | “But you are asking me, God, to be kind to you, even though you have done these wrong things. Do not think that I will accept you!” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
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| “Who even among you will shut the doors, that you might not kindle {fire} on my altar in vain? Pleasure in you is not to me,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will not accept an offering from your hand. | Yahweh. Who commands the heavenly armies, says, “I wish one of you would close the temple doors. Then you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not happy with you. I will not accept any offerings from you. |
Because Yahweh’s name was going to be glorified among the nations, and in every place the nations were going to offer pure offerings unlike the offerings from the hands of the Israelites.
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| For from the rising of the sun and unto its setting, my name {will be} great among the nations. And in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name {will be} great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies. | People all over the world will respect me. In every place, people will burn incense to honor me and bring me pure offerings, because everyone will know how great I am.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
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| “But you are profaning it in your saying, ‘The table of the Lord, it {is} defiled, and its fruit, its food, is despised.’ | “But you dishonor me. You say that my altar is not important, and you do not value the food you get from it. |
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| But you say, ‘Behold, what a weariness!’ And you puff at it,” says Yahweh of Armies. “And you bring the stolen and the lame and the sick—thus you bring the offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” says Yahweh. | You even say, ‘We are tired of doing this work!’ You show that you do not care about it.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. “You bring me animals that you stole, cannot walk, or are sick. If you bring these as offerings, do not think that I will accept them from you!” says Yahweh. |
They regarded it as tiresome, and they disdainfully snorted at it.
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| “But cursed {be} the deceiver if a male is in his flock and he vows {it}, but he sacrifices the blemished to the Lord. For I {am} a great King, says Yahweh of Armies, and my name is feared among the nations. | “I will punish anyone who tries to cheat me. If someone promises to give me a good male animal from his flock but then gives me one that is not healthy, I will punish that person. After all, I am the great King. I am Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, and people all over the world respect me.” |
Because Yahweh is a great King, and his name is feared among the nations.
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| And now, this commandment {is} for you, O priests. | Yahweh says, “Now, priests, this command is for you. |
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| If you will not listen, and if you will not set {it} upon the heart to give glory to my name,” says Yahweh of Armies, “then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed, I have cursed it, for you are not setting {this} upon the heart. | If you do not obey me and make sure that you honor me, I will curse you,” says Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies. “I will even curse the good things I have given you. In fact, I have already started to curse them, because you are not taking seriously what I have told you to do. |
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| Behold me, rebuking the seed {that is} to you, and I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your festivals, and one will take you away with it. | I am ready to punish you by keeping you from having good harvests. You will be disgraced, as if I had spread animal waste on your faces, the waste from the animals you sacrifice at festivals. People will consider you as worthless as that waste! |
They would know by the curse of Yahweh on their blessings, and by him spreading dung on their faces.
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| And you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, for my covenant to be with Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. | Then you will know that I gave you this command so that my agreement with the priests, the descendants of Levi, will continue.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
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| “My covenant was with him, life and peace, and I gave them to him {for} fear, and he feared me, and before my name he was dismayed. | “I made a peaceful and life-giving agreement with them because they revered me, and they revered me greatly. |
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| The instruction of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. In peace and in uprightness he walked with me, and he turned many from iniquity. | They taught the people what was true, and they did not say things that were wrong. They lived peacefully and honestly, the way I wanted them to, and they helped many people stop doing bad things. |
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| For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek instruction from his mouth, for he {is} the messenger of Yahweh of Armies. | After all, a priest should teach people how to know God better. People should learn from what the priest says, because he brings messages from me, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. |
Because the priest should guard knowledge as the messenger of Yahweh.
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| But you yourselves have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by {your} instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. | But you priests have stopped living the way I want. Your teaching has caused many people to do wrong things. You have failed to keep the agreement I made with the Levite priests,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. |
The priests did so by showing partiality in their instruction.
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| “So I myself have also made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you {are} not keeping my ways and {are} lifting faces regarding the instruction.” | “So I have made people disrespect you and I have humiliated you before all the people. This is because you have not lived the way I want people to live. You have also not treated everyone fairly when you have applied my laws.” |
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| {Is} not one father to all of us? Did not one God create us? Why do we deal treacherously, a man against his brother, to profane the covenant of our fathers? | In a sense, we all have the same father, since the same God created each of us. So we should not break our promises to each other. If we do, we dishonor the agreement God made with our ancestors. |
Yahweh would cut off any man who dealt treacherously against his brother or who married the daughter of a foreign god, and then brought an offering to Yahweh.
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| Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy place of Yahweh, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. | The people of Judah have not been faithful to God. They have done terrible things in Israel and Jerusalem. They have dishonored the temple that Yahweh loves. They are worshiping foreign gods instead of Yahweh. |
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| May Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, the one being awake and the one answering, even the one bringing an offering to Yahweh of Armies. | I hope Yahweh will remove from among the people of Israel every single person who does this, even if they bring offerings to Yahweh, who is the commander of the heavenly armies. |
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| And this second {thing} you do: covering the altar of Yahweh {with} tears, {with} weeping and groaning, because there is no longer turning to the offering or taking {it} with favor {from} your hand. | This is another thing you do: When you come to offer sacrifices at Yahweh’s altar, you weep bitterly. You cry and groan because Yahweh no longer accepts your offerings. |
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| But you say, “For what?” Because Yahweh is a witness between you and between the wife of your youth, {with} whom you yourself have dealt treacherously, though she {was} your companion and the wife of your covenant. | You may wonder what I mean and ask, “Why does he not accept them?” It is because Yahweh knows that you have not been faithful to the wife you married as a young man. You did this even though she was your partner and you promised to be her husband. |
Because Israel had dealt treacherously with the wife of his youth.
| ULT | UST |
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| And did he not make one, and a remnant of spirit {was} to him? And why one? {He was} seeking seed of God. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth. | God has united husbands and wives so that they are one, and he has made their marriage a spiritual relationship. God made them one because he wants them to have children who are faithful to him. So be careful. Do not break your promise to the wife you married when you were a young man. |
Because Yahweh had made Israel and his wife one in order to have godly offspring, and because Yahweh hated divorce and him who covers his garment with violence.
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| “For I hate divorce,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “and one {who} covers over his garment with violence,” says Yahweh of Armies. “So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not deal treacherously.” | Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “I hate divorce. I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to your wife. So be careful. Do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
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| You have wearied Yahweh with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied {him}?” In your saying, “All of the doers of evil {are} good in the eyes of Yahweh, and he delights in them,” or, “Where {is} the God of justice?” | Yahweh is tired of hearing what you have been saying. You may wonder what I mean and ask, “How have we made him tired?” You have made him tired by saying, “Yahweh thinks that people who do evil things are actually good. He is happy with them.” Yahweh is also tired of hearing you say, “God is not being fair!” |
They wearied Yahweh with their words by saying that he who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight and he delights in them, and by asking where the God of justice was.
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| “Behold me, sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way to my face. Then suddenly he will come to his temple, the Lord whom you {are} seeking. And the messenger of the covenant, whom you {are} desiring, behold, {he is} coming,” says Yahweh of Armies. | Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says, “Pay attention! I am about to send my messenger. He will get things ready for me to come. Then I, the Lord you are looking for, will suddenly come to my temple. You want someone to bring you a message about my agreement with you, and I am going to send someone to do that. |
The Lord, whom Israel sought, would suddenly come to his temple.
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| “But who {will be} enduring the day of his coming? And who {will be} the one standing in his appearing? For he {will be} like the fire of a refiner and like the soap of launderers. | But when he does come, no one will be able to keep living the way they were living before. When he appears, he will not tell anyone that he is innocent. But he will purify people {from sin}, just as fire makes metal pure and soap makes clothes clean. |
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| And he will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver. And they will be to Yahweh bringers of an offering in righteousness. | He will help people stop sinning, just as a metalworker sits patiently near silver he has melted and keeps removing impurities from it. He will purify the descendants of Levi, just as a metalworker purifies gold and silver. Then they will bring proper offerings to Yahweh. |
It would be pleasing after the purification of the sons of Levi, when they were refined like gold and silver.
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| Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh, as {in} the days of old and as {in} former years. | After that, Yahweh will accept the offerings that the people of Judah and Jerusalem bring him, just as he did in ancient times.” |
He would draw near to Israel for judgment and be a swift witness against those who did not honor him.
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| And I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the ones swearing to a lie, and against the ones oppressing the wage of the hired worker, the widow, and the orphan, and the ones turning aside the foreigner, and they do not fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies. | Yahweh, who commands the armies of heaven, says, “I will come to judge you. I will immediately declare people guilty and punish them if they have practiced witchcraft, committed adultery, made false promises, not paid fair wages to their workers, or taken advantage of widows and orphans and foreigners. People have done those things because they did not think I would punish them{, but I will}. |
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| “For I, Yahweh, do not change, so you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. | I will do this because I am Yahweh, and I {swore to Abraham that I would bless his descendants}. When I make a promise, I keep it. That is why you descendants of Jacob are still living here in Judea, even though you are disobeying me. |
They had not been consumed because Yahweh does not change.
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| From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept {them}. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘In what shall we return?’ | Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have disobeyed my laws. You have completely ignored them. Now come back to me, and I will come back to you,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. “You may wonder what I mean and ask, ‘How can we come back to you?’ |
They had turned away by not keeping his ordinances.
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| Will a human rob God? Yet you {are} robbing me. But you say, ‘In what have we robbed you?’ {In} the tithe and the contribution. | You might think that no one would even try to steal from God. But you are stealing from me! You may wonder what I mean and ask, ‘How are we stealing from you?’ You are stealing from me by not giving me the tithes and offerings that you should. |
They had robbed God in tithes and offerings.
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| With a curse you {are} cursed, for you {are} robbing me, the nation, all of it. | Because you are robbing me in this way, I have put a curse on all of you Israelites. |
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| Bring all of the tithe to the house of treasure, and let there be food in my house. And test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open for you the windows of the heavens and pour out for you a blessing until there is no sufficiency. | Bring all the tithes to the room in the temple where the priests keep contributions. Make sure there is food for the priests who serve in my temple. Try this and see what I do in response,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. “If you do this, then I will bless you so much that it will be as if I had opened windows in the sky and poured out blessings to you. You will not have enough room to store all of the crops that grow in your fields. |
Yahweh promised that he would rebuke the one who devours you, and that all the nations would call Israel blessed.
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| And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and it will not corrupt for you the fruit of the ground. And the vine in the field will not be barren for you,” says Yahweh of Armies. | I will prevent pests from eating your crops. Your grapevines will produce plenty of grapes,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. |
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| “And all of the nations will bless you, for you will be a land of delight,” says Yahweh of Armies. | “Then people from all nations will say that God has blessed you. They will say that because your land will be a delightful place,” says Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. |
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| “Your words have been strong against me,” says Yahweh. “But you say, ‘What have we spoken {among ourselves} against you?’ | Yahweh says, “You have said terrible things about me. You may wonder what I mean and ask, ‘What have we said about you?’ |
They had said that serving God is pointless because the arrogant and evildoers prosper even when they tempt him.
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| You have said, ‘Serving God {is} worthless. And what profit, that we have kept his charge and that we have walked mournfully to the face of Yahweh of Armies? | You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. We have not gained anything by obeying his commands or by showing Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, that we are sorry for our sins. |
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| So now we ourselves {are} blessing the arrogant. Even doers of wickedness are built up; they even test God and escape.’” | We have come to think that proud people become prosperous. Even when people do bad things, they succeed. They challenge God by doing wicked things, but God does not punish them.’” |
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| Then the ones fearing Yahweh spoke {among themselves}, a man with his neighbor. And Yahweh paid attention and heard. And a book of remembrance was written to his face for the ones fearing Yahweh and for the ones esteeming his name. | Then those who honored Yahweh all spoke with one another. Yahweh listened carefully to what they said. Those who honored Yahweh and respected him all wrote their names down in a book as he watched. |
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| “And they will be to me,” says Yahweh of Armies, “a special possession on the day that I {am} preparing. And I will have compassion on them just as a man has compassion on his son, the one serving him. | Then Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, said, “These people especially will belong to me. On the day when I judge people, I will spare them from punishment. I will treat them kindly, just as parents treat kindly the children who obey them. |
The Israelites would again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, and between one who worships God and one who does not worship him.
Yahweh said that those who feared Yahweh and esteemed his name would belong to him and be spared.
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| And you will return and see between the righteous and to the wicked, between the one serving God and to {one} who does not serve him. | Then once more you will clearly see that righteous people do prosper while wicked people do not. There is that difference between those who obey God and those who disobey him.” |
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| For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all of the arrogant and all of the doers of wickedness will be stubble. And the coming day will kindle them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “so that it will not leave to them root or branch. | Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, says, “Pay attention! The time is coming when I am going to judge people. People will feel their guilt intensely, as if they were standing in front of a hot furnace. At that time, I will destroy all proud and wicked people as if they were straw burning in a fire. I will destroy them completely, just as a fire burns up plants from top to bottom. |
The proud and evildoers would become stubble, being burnt up.
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| But for you fearers of my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, and healing {will be} upon its wings. And you will go out and skip like calves of the stall. | But those of you who honor me will experience my power saving you as if the sun were rising and bringing you warmth and light. By my power, I will heal you. You will be as happy as calves are when they leave their stalls to go and play out in the open fields. |
They would go out leaping like calves from the stall and tread down the wicked.
The sun of righteousness would rise for those who feared Yahweh’s name.
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| And you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I {am} preparing,” says Yahweh of Armies. | At the time when I do this, you will completely defeat every wicked person. It will be as if you are stomping them down with your feet.” This is what Yahweh, who commands the heavenly armies, says. |
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| “Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, which I commanded him at Horeb for all of Israel, the statutes and the judgments. | “Remember to obey the laws that I gave to my servant Moses on Mount Sinai. Obey all the rules and regulations that I gave him for all the Israelite people to obey. |
He commanded them to remember and obey the law of his servant Moses.
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| Behold, I {am} sending to you Elijah the prophet to the face of the coming of the great and fearsome day of Yahweh. | Listen carefully! I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the grand and frightening day comes when I, Yahweh, will judge everyone. |
He would send Elijah to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, so that Yahweh would not curse the land.
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| And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land {with} a curse.” | Because of his message, parents and children will love each other again. I am going to make this happen so that I will not have to come and curse your country.” |