Malachi 3:7

American Standard Version (1901)

From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

לְמִימֵ֨י אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֜ם סַרְתֶּ֤ם מֵֽחֻקַּי֙ וְלֹ֣א שְׁמַרְתֶּ֔ם שׁ֤וּבוּ אֵלַי֙ וְאָשׁ֣וּבָה אֲלֵיכֶ֔ם אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם בַּמֶּ֥ה נָשֽׁוּב׃

Transliteration

Le-mime ʾavotekhem sartem me-ḥuqqay we-loʾ shemartem shuvu ʾelay we-ʾashuvah ʾalekhem ʾamar YHWH tsevaʾot wa-ʾamartem bammeh nashuv.

Grammar Details

• *Le-mime*: preposition + noun, masculine plural construct - from/since the days of
• *ʾavotekhem*: noun, masculine plural with 2nd masculine plural suffix - your fathers
• *sartem*: Qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - you have turned aside
• *me-ḥuqqay*: preposition + noun, masculine plural construct with 1st person singular suffix - from my statutes
• *we-loʾ*: waw conjunction + negative particle - and not
• *shemartem*: Qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - you have kept
• *shuvu*: Qal imperative, masculine plural - return
• *ʾelay*: preposition with 1st person singular suffix - to me
• *we-ʾashuvah*: waw consecutive + Qal imperfect, 1st person singular - and I will return
• *ʾalekhem*: preposition with 2nd masculine plural suffix - to you
• *ʾamar*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - says/said
• *YHWH*: divine name - Yahweh/LORD
• *tsevaʾot*: noun, feminine plural - hosts/armies
• *wa-ʾamartem*: waw consecutive + Qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - and you say
• *bammeh*: preposition + interrogative pronoun - in what/how
• *nashuv*: Qal imperfect, 1st common plural - shall we return

Word Meanings

• *mime*: days/time
• *ʾavotekhem*: your fathers/your ancestors/your forefathers
• *sartem*: turned aside/departed/deviated
• *ḥuqqay*: my statutes/my decrees/my ordinances
• *shemartem*: kept/observed/guarded
• *shuvu*: return/turn back/repent
• *ʾashuvah*: I will return/I will turn back/I will restore
• *bammeh*: in what way/how/by what means
• *nashuv*: shall we return/should we turn back/how can we repent

Referenced Verses

• Zech 1:3 : 3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts.
• Deut 31:20 : 20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxed fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
• Neh 9:28-30 : 28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee; therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies, 29 and testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law. Yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thine ordinances, (which if a man do, he shall live in them), and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear. 30 Yet many years didst thou bear with them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit through thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
• Mal 1:6 : 6 A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
• Luke 15:16 : 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
• Ezek 20:21 : 21 But the children rebelled against me; they walked not in my statutes, neither kept mine ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
• Rom 10:21 : 21 But as to Israel he saith, All the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
• Deut 4:29-31 : 29 But from thence ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him, when thou searchest after him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days thou shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and hearken unto his voice: 31 for Jehovah thy God is a merciful God; he will not fail thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
• Deut 30:1-4 : 1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither Jehovah thy God hath driven thee, 2 and shalt return unto Jehovah thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; 3 that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither Jehovah thy God hath scattered thee. 4 If [any of] thine outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
• 1 Kgs 8:47-49 : 47 yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have dealt wickedly; 48 if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: 49 then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling-place, and maintain their cause;
• Neh 1:8-9 : 8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples: 9 but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.
• Isa 55:6-7 : 6 Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
• Isa 65:2 : 2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, that walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;
• Jer 3:12-14 : 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah, I will not keep [anger] for ever. 13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah. 14 Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
• Hos 14:1 : 1 O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
• Jer 3:22 : 22 Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou art Jehovah our God.
• Jer 7:26 : 26 yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
• Ezek 18:30-32 : 30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord Jehovah. Return ye, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn yourselves, and live.
• Ezek 20:8 : 8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
• Ezek 20:13 : 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
• Neh 9:16-17 : 16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments, 17 and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and forsookest them not.
• Neh 9:26 : 26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their back, and slew thy prophets that testified against them to turn them again unto thee, and they wrought great provocations.
• Lev 26:40-42 : 40 And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary unto me, 41 I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
• Deut 9:7-9 : 7 Remember, forget thou not, how thou provokedst Jehovah thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou wentest forth out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah. 8 Also in Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to wrath, and Jehovah was angry with you to destroy you. 9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. 10 And Jehovah delivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words, which Jehovah spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Jehovah gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. 12 And Jehovah said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people that thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 13 Furthermore Jehovah spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 14 let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against Jehovah your God; ye had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which Jehovah had commanded you. 17 And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith Jehovah was wroth against you to destroy you. But Jehovah hearkened unto me that time also. 20 And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
• Jas 4:8 : 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.
• Ezek 20:28 : 28 For when I had brought them into the land, which I sware to give unto them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and they poured out there their drink-offerings.
• Acts 7:51-52 : 51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. 52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
• Rom 7:9 : 9 And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;
• Rom 10:3 : 3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
• Mal 3:13 : 13 Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?
• Matt 23:27 : 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
• Luke 11:48-51 : 48 So ye are witnesses and consent unto the works of your fathers: for they killed them, and ye build [their tombs] . 49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles; and [some] of them they shall kill and persecute; 50 that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51 from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary: yea, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation.
• Ps 78:8-9 : 8 And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that set not their heart aright, And whose spirit was not stedfast with God. 9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. 10 They kept not the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law;
• Deut 31:27-29 : 27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah; and how much more after my death? 28 Assemble unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.