What Does Malachi 1:9 Mean?
And now, I pray you, soften the face of God, that he may favor us. By your hand this has come to be. Will he lift your faces? says the LORD of hosts.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
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.
“lift your faces” in this verse is yiśśāʾ. 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.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.The sacrifice of the wicked is a recoiling thing to the LORD, but the prayer of the straight ones is his delight.So if you bring your gift toward the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you; Let go of your gift there, before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and bring your gift.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love 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.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us