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LXX Malachi

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 Look, I send forth my messenger, and he shall survey the way before my face:⁠ and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come into his temple,⁠ even the angel of the covenant, whom you take pleasure in: look, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty. 2 And who will endure the day of his coming? or who will withstand at his appearing? for he is coming in as the fire of a furnace and as the herb of fullers. 3 He shall sit to melt and purify as it were silver, and as it were gold: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. 4 And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord, according to the former days, and according to the former years. 5 And I will draw near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the witches, and against the adulteresses, and against those who swear falsely by my name, and against those who keep back the hired worker's wages, and those who oppress the widow, and afflict orphans, and that distort the judgment of the foreigner, and do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty. 6 For I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed: but you, the sons of Jacob, have not refrained 7 from the iniquities of your fathers: you have perverted my statutes, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you said, In what way shall we return? 8 Will a man insult God? for you insult me. But you say, In what way have we insulted you? In that the tithes and first fruits are with you still. 9 And you do surely look off from me, and you insult me. The nation is completed. 10 And you have brought all the produce into the storehouses; but there shall be the plunder of it in its house: consider now in this, says the Lord Almighty, see if I will not open to you the torrents of heaven, and pour out my blessing upon you, until you are satisfied. 11 And I will appoint food for you, and I will not destroy the fruit of your land; and your vine in the field shall not fail, says the Lord Almighty. 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty. 13 You have spoken harsh words against me, says the Lord. Yet you said, In what way have we spoken against you? 14 You said, The person who serves God labors in vain: and what have we gained in that we have kept his ordinances, and in that we have walked as people pleading for mercy before the face of the Lord Almighty? 15 And now we pronounce strangers blessed; and all they who act unlawfully are built up; and they have resisted God, and yet have been delivered. 16 Thus those who feared the Lord spoke, each to his neighbor: and the Lord paid attention, and listened, and he wrote a book of remembrance before him for those who feared the Lord and reverenced his name. 17 And they shall be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day which I appoint for my own possession; and I will make choice of them, as a man makes choice of his son that serves him. 18 Then you will return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, and between the person who serves God, and the person who does not serve him. 19 For, look, the day of the Lord comes burning as an oven, and it shall consume them; and all the aliens, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that is coming shall set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty, and there shall not be left of them root or branch. 20 But for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness will rise, and healing shall be in his wings: and you shall go forth, and bound as young calves let loose from bonds. 21 And you shall trample the wicked; for they shall be ashes underneath your feet in the day which I appoint, says the Lord Almighty. 22 And, look, I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes; 23 who shall turn again the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor, so that I do not come and strike the earth severely. 24 Remember the law of my servant Moses, accordingly as I charged him with it in Horeb for all Israel, even the commandments and ordinances.

Texts in conversation

How Mark Combines Isaiah and Malachi as One Quote

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Mark opens with a combined quotation from Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3, although it only names Isaiah, and uses this to present itself in direct continuity with the narrative of the Hebrew Bible.

Passages

LXX Isaiah 40:3

Septuagint
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says God. 2 Speak, you priests, to the heart of Jerusalem; comfort her, for her humiliation is accomplished, her sin is put away: for she has received of the Lord's hand double the amount of her sins. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. 4 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough places plains.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

LXX Malachi 3:1

Septuagint
1 Look, I send forth my messenger, and he shall survey the way before my face: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come into his temple, even the angel of the covenant, whom you take pleasure in: look, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty. 2 And who will endure the day of his coming? or who will withstand at his appearing? for he is coming in as the fire of a furnace and as the herb of fullers. 3 He shall sit to melt and purify as it were silver, and as it were gold: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Malachi

Mark 1:2

New Testament
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’” 4 In the wilderness John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
60–75 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mark

References

"... Mark’s gospel is unique in that it opens with a quotation from Jewish scripture (1:2–3). This opening quotation combines Malachi 3:1 with Isaiah 40:3, even though the evangelist only cites the prophet Isaiah. Here the evangelist gives the reader an obvious clue regarding the source material that has influenced and shaped his work, namely Jewish scriptures. Many interpreters have used this quotation to claim that the text of Isaiah in particular has played a significant role in the formation and theology of the gospel. But it is possible that Mark might also be pointing the reader to a particular figure in Jewish Scripture. Malachi 3:1 promises that God will send a messenger before he brings his judgment upon Israel. In Malachi 3:22 (LXX), it is quite clear that the messenger is the prophet Elijah: “And behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and glorious day of the Lord.” To the observant reader, Mark’s opening citation alludes to the prophetic figure of Elijah. Such an allusion might very well function as a clue to the reader that the story of Elijah is an important background for the gospel. This allusion to Elijah alone means little, but it might become more significant if additional allusions to or clear imitation of the Elijah-Elisha narrative can be discerned ..."
Adam Winn, Mark and the Elijah-Elisha Narrative: Considering the Practice of Greco-Roman Imitation in the Search for Markan Source Material (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010), 82.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Isaiah 40:3 and LXX Malachi 3:1 and Mark 1:2

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