What Does Malachi 1:9 Mean in the King James?
And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The plea for favor sits beside the verse’s charge that the condition comes from the petitioners’ own hands.
THE MEANING
A plea for God’s favor stands beside the fact that what is before him comes from the hearers’ own hands. The question of whether he will regard them leaves acceptance unsettled; their appeal does not erase what they have brought.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Asking God for favor guarantees acceptance, regardless of what one’s own hands have brought.
THE ROOT
וִיחָנֵּנוּ
wîḥonnēnû
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥānan
To show favor or be gracious.
“gracious” in this verse is wîḥonnēnû. The verb comes from חנן, the same root behind חֵן, favor, and תְּחִנָּה, a plea for favor. The verse places that appeal right beside “from your hand”, the plea does not make the hands disappear.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor, graciousness.
חֵן
This is the favor the petitioners ask God to show.
teḥinnāh: A plea for favor, supplication.
תְּחִנָּה
The appeal in the verse belongs to the same root family as the favor it seeks.
ḥannûn: Gracious, showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This form describes God as gracious in Exodus 34:6, where the same nature is named directly.
יִשָּׂא
yiśśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
nāśāʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
The Hebrew asks literally whether God will “lift faces,” the idiom behind “regard your persons.” The verb’s lifting image makes regard a question of whether their faces are raised into favor.
ALSO GROWS
maśśāʾ: A burden or load, something carried.
מַשָּׂא
It preserves the root’s sense of bearing, which also underlies the question of lifting faces.
nāśîʾ: A leader or prince; one elevated.
נָשִׂיא
This related form carries the sense of being raised, echoing the image concealed in “regard.”
THE PATTERN
A plea for divine regard is set beside what the petitioner’s own hands have done.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,The word translated “gracious” in Malachi comes from חנן, the same root used when God is named “gracious” in Exodus. Malachi places that appeal to God’s nature beside the reminder that the present condition comes from the petitioners’ own hands.
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