Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Malachi
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline Translation Memory
| Term (English) | French Rendering | Original (Heb./Gk.) | Risk (inherited) | Occurrences in Malachi | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| covenant | alliance | בְּרִית (berit) | High | 2:5, 2:10, 2:14, 3:1 | [TM REUSE] |
| righteousness / justice (tsedaqah sense) | justice | צְדָקָה (tsedaqah) | Critical | 3:3, 4:2 | [TM REUSE] — requires disambiguating note vs. mishpat sense below |
| law | loi (capitalize “la Loi” for Torah) | תּוֹרָה (torah) | High | 4:4 | [TM REUSE] |
| prophet | prophète | נָבִיא (navi) | Low | 4:5 | [TM REUSE] |
| glory | gloire | כָּבוֹד (kavod, divine-glory sense only) | Medium | (implicit; cf. 1:6 human-honor sense below, kept distinct) | [TM REUSE — sense-restricted] |
| lord | Seigneur | אָדוֹן (adon) | Critical (elevated from High for this book) | 3:1 | [TM REUSE] — must be typographically distinguished from YHWH rendering in the same verse |
| gentiles (rejected in positive contexts) | (avoid “païens”; see “nations” below) | גּוֹיִם (goyim) | Medium | 1:11 | [TM REUSE OF GUIDANCE, not the word itself] |
B. New Terms Proposed for This Curriculum
| Term (English) | French Rendering | Original (Heb.) | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Occurrences | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YHWH / “the LORD” | le SEIGNEUR (primary; l’Éternel = accepted alternative) | יְהוָה | YHWH | Critical | God’s Unchanging Love; all doctrines | ~25x throughout | ”Dieu” (loses covenant-name specificity); “Yahvé” (too academic/transliteration-only for liturgical register) | Highest-frequency term in the book; must be locked book-wide before Phase 2 begins; must be visually/lexically distinguished from “le Seigneur” (=adon, 3:1) and from “Seigneur” (=kyrios, Romans NT usage). |
| “the Lord” (ha’adon) | le Seigneur | הָאָדוֹן | ha’adon | Critical | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:1 | ”le maître” (loses divine-title resonance) | Distinct lexeme from YHWH in the same verse; traditionally read as a messianic/theophanic figure distinct from the forerunner “messenger.” |
| my messenger | mon messager | מַלְאָכִי | mal’akhi | Critical | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 1:1 (book title), 3:1 | ”mon ange” (wrongly imports angelic-being reading) | Also the meaning of the book’s own title; NT identifies this figure with John the Baptist (Matt 11:10). |
| messenger of the covenant | le messager de l’alliance | מַלְאַךְ הַבְּרִית | mal’akh habberit | Critical | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:1 | ”l’ange de l’alliance” (angelic-being risk, as above) | Distinct figure from “mon messager” in the same verse; traditionally identified with “ha’adon,” i.e., the Lord himself. |
| LORD of hosts | le SEIGNEUR des armées (alt. l’Éternel des armées) | יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת | YHWH Tzevaot | Critical | God’s Unchanging Love; The Coming Messenger | throughout | ”le SEIGNEUR tout-puissant” (loses specific military-host imagery); “le SEIGNEUR Sabaoth” (untranslated transliteration, too obscure for target reading level) | Follows the book-wide YHWH-rendering decision. |
| temple | temple | הֵיכָל | heikhal | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 3:1 | — | Risk of confusion with French Protestant usage of “temple” for a church building; must be clearly anchored to the historical Jerusalem sanctuary. |
| refiner’s fire | feu de fondeur / feu du raffineur | אֵש מְצָרֵף | esh metzaref | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:2-3 | ”feu purificateur” (acceptable secondary gloss) | Metallurgical, not merely punitive, image; must be echoed but distinguished from ch.4’s consuming-oven image. |
| fullers’ soap | savon de blanchisseur / lessive de foulon | בֹּרִית מְכַבְּסִים | borit mekhabbesim | Low | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:2 | — | Archaic trade image; brief explanatory gloss recommended in teaching contexts. |
| purify / refine (Levites) | purifier / affiner | טהר / זקק | taher / zaqaq | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord; Corrupt Worship | 3:3 | ”sanctifier” (imports NT sanctification register inappropriately here) | Unlike Romans’ caution against “purification” for sanctification, here the literal ritual/metallurgical refining image IS the intended sense — do not suppress it. |
| offering | offrande | מִנְחָה | minchah | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:10-13, 2:12-13, 3:3-4, 3:8 | ”sacrifice” (too narrow; minchah is specifically the tribute/gift offering, distinct from zevach) | Recurs as a thread term across chs. 1 and 3; consistent rendering needed to track the corrupt-to-purified-offering arc. |
| sacrifice | sacrifice | זֶבַח | zevach | Low | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:8 | — | Distinct term from minchah; keep the two lexically distinguished in French as they are in Hebrew. |
| priests (Levitical) | sacrificateurs (NOT bare “prêtres”) | כֹּהֲנִים | kohanim | High | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:6-2:9 | ”prêtres” (imports Catholic sacramental-priesthood connotation) | Segond-tradition convention; recommended as this curriculum’s fixed rendering to avoid sacramental-mediation drift. |
| sons of Levi | les fils de Lévi | בְּנֵי־לֵוִי | bene Levi | Low | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:3 | — | Proper-name-based; link explicitly to “sacrificateurs” above in teaching notes. |
| I have loved (you) | je vous ai aimés | אָהַבְתִּי | ahavti | High | God’s Unchanging Love for His People | 1:2 | ”j’ai chéri” (too weak, loses covenantal-election force) | Cited in Romans 9:13; cross-reference the baseline’s High-risk “élection” entry. |
| I have hated (Esau) | j’ai haï (Esaü) [mandatory glossing note required] | שָׂנֵאתִי | saneti | Critical | God’s Unchanging Love for His People | 1:3 | ”j’ai aimé moins” (silently softens the text, obscuring the idiom rather than explaining it) | Comparative-preference Hebrew idiom (cf. Gen 29:31); must be paired with an explanatory note, not silently altered. |
| Edom | Édom | אֱדוֹם | Edom | Low | God’s Unchanging Love for His People | 1:4 | — | Standard proper name. |
| honor (of a father) | honneur | כָּבוֹד | kavod (human-relational sense) | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:6 | ”gloire” (reserved for God’s own divine glory sense per TM) | Distinct sense of the same root as “gloire”; keep senses lexically separated in French. |
| fear/reverence (of a master) | crainte | מוֹרָא | mora | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:6 | ”peur” (too weak/secular, loses reverential register) | Paired rhetorically with “honneur” above. |
| polluted bread/offering | pain souillé / offrande polluée | לֶחֶם מְגֹאָל | lechem megoal | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:7 | — | Moral, not merely hygienic, defilement. |
| blemished (lame, blind, sick) | boiteux, aveugle, malade | פִּסֵּחַ, עִוֵּר, חֹלֶה | pisseach, iver, choleh | Low | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:8, 1:13 | — | Torah-legal background (Lev 22:20-24) worth a footnote. |
| the great King | le grand Roi | מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל | melekh gadol | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 1:14 | — | Connects thematically to baseline “Royaume de Dieu” doctrine. |
| the nations | les nations (NOT “païens”) | הַגּוֹיִם | ha-goyim | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant (positive universalizing use) | 1:11 | ”païens” (explicitly cautioned against in baseline TM for positive/mission contexts) | Applies the baseline’s own stated guidance for goyim in hopeful, universal-worship contexts. |
| cursed | maudit | אָרוּר | arur | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 1:14 | — | Distinguish from the stronger “cherem” in ch. 4. |
| covenant with Levi | l’alliance avec Lévi | בְּרִית לֵוִי | berit Levi | Medium | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 2:4-8 | — | Uses [TM REUSE] “alliance.” |
| deal treacherously / faithless | être infidèle / agir traîtreusement | בָּגַד | bagad | High | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage; Corrupt Worship | 2:10, 2:14, 2:15, 2:16 | Varying/inconsistent verbs across occurrences (rejected — must be uniform) | Single Hebrew verb ties worship-corruption and marital-unfaithfulness together; render consistently at every occurrence. |
| wife of your covenant | l’épouse de ton alliance | אֵשֶׁת בְּרִיתֶךָ | eshet beritekha | High | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 2:14 | ”ta femme légitime” (loses covenantal framing) | Key text for marriage-as-covenant doctrine. |
| divorce / put away | répudier / le divorce | שָׁלַח (idiomatic) | shalach | Critical | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 2:16 | — | Textual/translational ambiguity in the Hebrew; mandatory theologian review regardless of construal chosen. |
| God of justice (mishpat sense) | justice (mishpat sense — disambiguate from tsedaqah) | מִשְׁפָּט | mishpat | Critical | Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant | 2:17 | — | Second distinct Hebrew concept mapped to French “justice”; mandatory disambiguating note at every occurrence. |
| I the LORD do not change | moi, le SEIGNEUR, je ne change pas | לֹא שָׁנִיתִי | lo shaniti | Critical | God’s Unchanging Love for His People | 3:6 | ”je suis immuable” (too abstract/philosophical, loses relational-covenant framing) | Doctrinal anchor verse for this curriculum’s first doctrine. |
| return to me / repent | revenir à moi / se repentir | שׁוּב | shuv | High | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 3:7, (root echoed in 4:6) | “se convertir” (institutionally loaded in French Catholic usage) | Relational turning-image, distinct in nuance from NT metanoia; keep verb-family consistent with 4:6. |
| rob | voler / frauder | קָבַע | qava | Medium | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 3:8 | ”négliger” (too soft, loses “theft” force) | Must retain rhetorical shock of “rob God.” |
| tithe | dîme | מַעֲשֵׂר | ma’aser | High | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 3:8, 3:10 | — | Strong French Revolution/Ancien Régime cultural association must be addressed in teaching material. |
| storehouse | la maison du trésor | בֵּית הָאוֹצָר | beit ha-otsar | Low | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 3:10 | ”le grenier” (acceptable secondary/agricultural-register gloss) | — |
| windows of heaven | les écluses des cieux | אֲרֻבּוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם | arubbot hashamayim | Medium | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 3:10 | ”les fenêtres du ciel” (acceptable literal alternative) | Echoes Genesis 7:11 Flood imagery, inverted to blessing. |
| blessing | bénédiction | בְּרָכָה | berakhah | High | Faithfulness in Tithing and Marriage | 3:10 | — | Requires explicit teaching-note distinction from baseline “grace” (unmerited) to avoid a works-merit/prosperity reading. |
| book of remembrance | le livre du souvenir | סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן | sefer zikkaron | Low | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 3:16 | — | — |
| those who fear the LORD | ceux qui craignent le SEIGNEUR | יִרְאֵי יְהוָה | yir’ei YHWH | Medium | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 3:16 | — | Standard, well-established French Bible idiom. |
| treasured possession | un peuple précieux / un trésor particulier | סְגֻלָּה | segullah | Medium | God’s Unchanging Love for His People | 3:17 | ”un peuple spécial” (too generic, loses possessive/treasured nuance) | Connects to baseline “adoption filiale”/“election” doctrines. |
| the righteous / the wicked | le juste / le méchant | צַדִּיק / רָשָׁע | tsaddiq / rasha | Medium | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 3:18 | — | Same tsedeq root family as “justice” (3:3); low collision risk in adjectival form. |
| the Day (of the LORD) | le jour (du SEIGNEUR) | יוֹם (יְהוָה) | yom (YHWH) | Critical | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 3:2, 4:1, 4:5 | — | Must be rendered identically at every occurrence in this book. |
| burning oven/furnace | fournaise ardente | תַּנּוּר בֹּעֵר | tannur bo’er | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 4:1 | — | Escalation of the 3:2-3 refiner’s-fire motif from purifying to consuming judgment. |
| sun of righteousness | soleil de justice | שֶׁמֶש צְדָקָה | shemesh tsedaqah | High | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 4:2 | — | Third distinct tsedaqah-family sense in the book (messianic-radiance); traditional messianic/Christological reading. |
| healing in its wings | la guérison dans ses ailes | מַרְפֵּא בִּכְנָפֶיהָ | marpe bikhnafeha | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 4:2 | — | — |
| Elijah the prophet | Élie le prophète | אֵלִיָּה הַנָּבִיא | Eliyyah ha-navi | Medium | The Coming Messenger and the Day of the Lord | 4:5 | — | Teach as a matched forerunner pair with “mon messager” (3:1); NT (Luke 1:17) applies both to John the Baptist. |
| turn the hearts of fathers to children | tourner/ramener le cœur des pères vers les fils | הֵשִׁיב לֵב־אָבוֹת עַל־בָּנִים | heshiv lev-avot al banim | Medium | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 4:6 | — | Root-echoes 3:7’s “shuv”; keep verb family consistent across both. |
| curse / utter destruction | anathème / destruction totale | חֵרֶם | cherem | High | The Call to Repentance before the Great Day | 4:6 | ”maudit” (reserved for the milder “arur,” ch.1; must not be reused here) | Stronger, more total covenantal-destruction category than ch.1’s “arur.” |
C. Risk Summary for This Curriculum
| Risk Tier | Count (New Terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 9 | Human theologian review required for every occurrence |
| High | 9 | Human theologian review required |
| Medium | 16 | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low | 7 | Automated review sufficient |
Note on Critical-tier concentration: This curriculum’s Critical-tier terms cluster heavily around (1) the divine-name rendering decision (YHWH/le SEIGNEUR), (2) the layered messenger/Lord figures of 3:1, (3) the doctrinally overloaded French word “justice” now carrying three distinct Hebrew senses (mishpat, tsedaqah-cultic, tsedaqah-messianic) across the book, and (4) the textually disputed divorce statement of 2:16. All four clusters require human theologian sign-off before Phase 2 translation proceeds, consistent with the baseline’s escalation rules for Critical/High risk material.
Critical Risk Terms
Yhwh
Approved rendering: le SEIGNEUR (alt. l’Éternel)
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: God’s Unchanging Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: Dieu (loses covenant-name specificity), Yahvé (too academic/transliteration-only for liturgical register)
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW — establishes the book-wide divine-name convention for this curriculum; occurs roughly 25x, the highest-density term in the book. Primary rendering ‘le SEIGNEUR’ in small capitals (TOB/BJ ecumenical convention); ‘l’Éternel’ (Segond/Protestant-evangelical convention) is the accepted reviewer-approved alternative. MUST be typographically/lexically distinguished from regular-case ‘le Seigneur’ (adon, see lord_adon) and from the Romans-package ‘Seigneur’ (kyrios, see lord) within the same combined curriculum, or readers will collapse three distinct referents into one term. This decision must be locked before any Phase 2 Malachi segment is translated.
Lord Adon
Approved rendering: le Seigneur
Transliteration: ha’adon
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Rejected alternatives: le maître (loses divine-title resonance)
Original: הָאָדוֹן
Category: Christology
NEW — elevated from the baseline’s High risk for ‘lord’ because Malachi 3:1 places ‘ha’adon’ and ‘YHWH Tzevaot’ in the same breath. Distinct Hebrew lexeme from YHWH; traditionally read by Christian interpreters as a divine/messianic visitor to the Temple. Regular case ‘le Seigneur’ MUST be visually distinguishable from small-caps ‘le SEIGNEUR’ (yhwh) in the very same verse, or the passage’s two-figure Christological structure collapses.
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: le SEIGNEUR des armées
Transliteration: YHWH Tzevaot
Doctrine: God’s Unchanging Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: le SEIGNEUR tout-puissant (loses specific military-host imagery), le SEIGNEUR Sabaoth (untranslated, too obscure for target reading level)
Original: יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
Category: God
NEW. Follows the book-wide yhwh-rendering decision above. YHWH’s title as sovereign commander of all heavenly and earthly forces; underlies the certainty of the coming judgment throughout the book.
My Messenger
Approved rendering: mon messager
Transliteration: mal’akhi
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Rejected alternatives: mon ange (wrongly imports an angelic-being reading)
Original: מַלְאָכִי
Category: Christology
NEW. Also the meaning of the book’s own title (Malachi = ‘my messenger’). The forerunner who prepares the way for YHWH’s coming; NT identifies this figure with John the Baptist (Matt 11:10, Mark 1:2, Luke 7:27). Must be kept distinct from messenger_of_the_covenant in the same verse (3:1).
Messenger Of The Covenant
Approved rendering: le messager de l’alliance
Transliteration: mal’akh habberit
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Rejected alternatives: l’ange de l’alliance (angelic-being risk)
Original: מַלְאַךְ הַבְּרִית
Category: Christology
NEW. Widely identified by Christian interpreters with ‘ha’adon’ of the same verse (3:1) — i.e., a messianic/theophanic figure distinct from the forerunner ‘mon messager’. Reuses [TM REUSE] ‘alliance’ from the covenant entry above. Requires theologian review to preserve the two-figure structure of Malachi 3:1.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: le jour du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: yom YHWH
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
Original: יוֹם יְהוָה / יוֹם בֹּאוֹ
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The climactic, decisive eschatological day of both judgment and vindication, running through 3:2, 4:1, and 4:5. Must be rendered identically at every occurrence in this book.
The Day Is Coming
Approved rendering: voici, le jour vient
Transliteration: hinneh ha-yom ba
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
NEW. Malachi 4:1’s introduction of the climactic day; must be rendered identically at every occurrence of this specific formula, consistent with the baseline’s requirement for fixed renderings of key repeated passages (cf. Romans 1:16-17, 8:28).
Righteousness Cultic
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: tsedaqah (3:3, cultic sense)
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée (forbidden per baseline)
Original: צְדָקָה (3:3)
Category: Worship
NEW sense-application of [TM REUSE] ‘justice’. Denotes right cultic/ethical conduct performed by the purified priesthood (3:3), NOT the Romans doctrine of imputed, forensic righteousness received by faith apart from works. Mandatory translator’s note required at this occurrence distinguishing it from Romans 1:17/3:24’s forensic sense.
Justice Mishpat
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: mishpat
Doctrine: God’s Justice and Moral Governance
Original: מִשְׁפָּט
Category: God
NEW sense-application of [TM REUSE] ‘justice’. Judicial/governmental justice — God’s role as righteous judge (2:17’s cynical complaint ‘Where is the God of justice?’), distinct from tsedaqah’s forensic-status sense. First of three distinct Hebrew concepts in this book mapped onto the single French word ‘justice’; mandatory disambiguating note required at every occurrence.
I Have Hated Esau
Approved rendering: j’ai haï
Transliteration: saneti
Doctrine: Divine Election (Jacob and Esau)
Rejected alternatives: j’ai aimé moins (silently softens the text rather than explaining the idiom)
Original: שָׂנֵאתִי
Category: Election
NEW. A comparative-preference Hebrew idiom (cf. Gen 29:31) for God’s sovereign choice of Jacob’s line over Esau’s — not necessarily personal animus. A bare literal French ‘j’ai haï’ risks a reader hearing arbitrary divine malice. MANDATORY explanatory glossing note required, paired directly with i_have_loved_you; do not silently soften the base text.
Divorce Shalach
Approved rendering: répudier / le divorce
Transliteration: shalach (idiomatic)
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Marriage as Covenant
Original: שָׁלַח (idiomatic)
Category: Marriage
NEW. Malachi 2:16’s famously disputed Hebrew (subject/object ambiguity) yields multiple defensible construals (‘I hate divorce’ vs. ‘the man who hates and divorces’). Mandatory human theologian review required regardless of which construal is adopted; any silent, unflagged resolution risks presenting a settled position on divorce/remarriage the underlying text does not settle — acute pastoral sensitivity given France’s Catholic canon-law tradition on marriage annulment/indissolubility.
I The Lord Do Not Change
Approved rendering: moi, le SEIGNEUR, je ne change pas
Transliteration: ani YHWH lo shaniti
Doctrine: God’s Unchanging Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: je suis immuable (too abstract/philosophical, loses relational-covenant framing)
Original: אֲנִי יְהוָה לֹא שָׁנִיתִי
Category: God
NEW — THE doctrinal anchor verse for ‘God’s Unchanging Love for His People’ (3:6). Must read as personal, relational covenant fidelity to a named people, never as abstract philosophical immutability; closely parallels the baseline’s High-risk ‘Assurance of Salvation’ doctrine.
High Risk Terms
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (de Dieu)
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Baseline caution: must be read as God’s saving, gift-status righteousness (Rom 1:17), not human moral virtue. CRITICAL EXPANSION FOR MALACHI: this same French word must also render at least three further distinct Hebrew senses in this book — mishpat (2:17, God’s judicial governance, see justice_mishpat), tsedaqah as right cultic/ethical conduct of purified worshippers (3:3, see righteousness_cultic), and tsedaqah in a messianic-radiance compound (4:2, ‘soleil de justice’, see sun_of_righteousness). EVERY Malachi occurrence of ‘justice’ requires a mandatory disambiguating translator’s note identifying which sense is active and explicitly denying the Romans forensic sense unless a genuine messianic cross-reference to Christ is intended (4:2 only).
Law
Approved rendering: loi
Transliteration: loi (la Loi)
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Capitalize as ‘la Loi’ for Torah/Mosaic law. MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 4:4 (‘Remember the Law of Moses’) uses this exact convention — render ‘la Loi de Moïse’. No new sense is introduced; Malachi’s referent remains narrowly Mosaic, consistent with baseline guidance.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 3:1 creates a three-way collision unique to this combined curriculum: kyrios/Seigneur (Romans usage, this entry), adon/Seigneur (regular case, see lord_adon), and YHWH/SEIGNEUR (small capitals, see yhwh). The regular-case ‘Seigneur’ in Malachi 3:1 renders adon, NOT this Romans kyrios entry directly, but shares the same base French word — the mandatory typographic convention (small caps for YHWH only) is what prevents collapse of these three referents on the page.
Election
Approved rendering: élection
Transliteration: élection
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: chance, destin
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Baseline flags the French-specific collision with the everyday political/electoral sense of the word, plus the Jansenist-controversy background within French Catholicism. MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 1:2-4’s Jacob/Esau love-hate language is the very Old Testament text Paul quotes in Romans 9:13 for this doctrine. Teaching material must make this cross-reference explicit (see i_have_loved_you and i_have_hated_esau below) without letting the French political sense of ‘élection’ flatten God’s sovereign choice in either passage.
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Baseline insists grace is never a reward for merit. MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 3:10’s ‘bénédiction’ (see blessing_berakhah below) operates within an Old Covenant blessing-for-obedience conditionality that must be explicitly distinguished from this term in teaching material — flag for human theologian review whenever the two passages are taught together, to prevent a prosperity-gospel or works-merit misreading.
Sun Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: soleil de justice
Transliteration: shemesh tsedaqah
Doctrine: Messianic Hope (Sun of Righteousness)
Original: שֶׁמֶש צְדָקָה
Category: Christology
NEW sense-application of [TM REUSE] ‘justice’. Third distinct tsedaqah-family sense in the book (4:2) — a messianic-radiance compound image, traditionally read by Christian interpreters in connection with Christ (cf. Luke 1:78-79 and later Christian hymnody). Flag for theologian review given this Christological resonance and the risk of total loss for a secularizing, low-OT-literacy French readership unless explicitly glossed.
I Have Loved You
Approved rendering: je vous ai aimés
Transliteration: ahavti etkhem
Doctrine: God’s Unchanging Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: j’ai chéri (too weak, loses covenantal-election force)
Original: אָהַבְתִּי אֶתְכֶם
Category: Election
NEW. Opens the book (1:2), grounding everything that follows in God’s prior, unearned, covenantal love. Directly cited in Romans 9:13 regarding election — cross-reference baseline’s High-risk ‘élection’ entry explicitly in teaching notes.
Priests Kohanim
Approved rendering: sacrificateurs
Transliteration: kohanim
Doctrine: Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant
Rejected alternatives: prêtres (imports Catholic sacramental-priesthood connotation)
Original: כֹּהֲנִים
Category: Church
NEW. Israel’s Levitical/Aaronic cultic officiants (1:6-2:9), the direct addressees of the book’s central rebuke. The Segond-tradition term ‘sacrificateurs’ is locked as this curriculum’s fixed convention, parallel to the baseline’s Église/temple distinction, to avoid sacramental-mediation drift.
Deal Treacherously Bagad
Approved rendering: être infidèle / agir traîtreusement
Transliteration: bagad
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Marriage as Covenant
Rejected alternatives: varying/inconsistent verbs across occurrences (must be uniform)
Original: בָּגַד
Category: Covenant
NEW. The single Hebrew verb structuring 2:10-16’s indictment of both covenant-breaking generally and marital infidelity specifically (2:10, 2:14, 2:15, 2:16). Must be rendered with the SAME French verb family at every occurrence, or Malachi’s deliberate parallel between corrupt worship and marital unfaithfulness is lost.
Wife Of Covenant
Approved rendering: l’épouse de ton alliance
Transliteration: eshet beritekha
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Marriage as Covenant
Rejected alternatives: ta femme légitime (loses covenantal framing entirely)
Original: אֵשֶׁת בְּרִיתֶךָ
Category: Marriage
NEW. Marriage explicitly framed as covenant (2:14), key text for the marriage doctrine. Must retain the covenantal, not merely contractual/legal, framing.
Return Repent Shuv
Approved rendering: revenir à moi / se repentir
Transliteration: shuv
Doctrine: The Call to Repentance before the Great Day
Rejected alternatives: se convertir (institutionally loaded in French Catholic usage; also collides with modern radicalization-discourse register)
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Repentance
NEW. The OT’s primary repentance term (3:7), a relational spatial-turning image distinct in register from NT metanoia. ‘Revenir à’ is primary; ‘se repentir’ only as secondary gloss. Keep the same verb family consistent with turn_hearts_fathers_children (4:6) to preserve the book’s structural echo.
Tithe Maaser
Approved rendering: dîme
Transliteration: ma’aser
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Tithing
Original: מַעֲשֵׂר
Category: Tithing
NEW. The mandated tenth-part offering (3:8, 3:10). Correct standard French Bible term, but carries strong Ancien Régime/anticlerical cultural memory (the compulsory feudal-era Church tax abolished in the 4 August 1789 decrees, taught in French schools). Teaching material must proactively address this association rather than let ‘dîme’ activate only its historical-political connotation.
Blessing Berakhah
Approved rendering: bénédiction
Transliteration: berakhah
Doctrine: Blessing as Covenant Response to Obedience
Original: בְּרָכָה
Category: Blessing
NEW. The promised outcome of faithful tithing (3:10-12). Direct theological tension with the baseline ‘grace’ entry’s insistence that grace is never a reward for merit; teaching material MUST clarify Old Covenant blessing-for-obedience conditionality operates within a different covenant framework than New Testament grace. Flag for human theologian review whenever taught alongside Romans grace material.
Cherem Utter Destruction
Approved rendering: anathème / destruction totale
Transliteration: cherem
Doctrine: Covenant Curse and Final Judgment (cherem)
Rejected alternatives: maudit (reserved exclusively for the milder arur, 1:14)
Original: חֵרֶם
Category: Covenant
NEW. A stronger, more total covenantal-destruction category (4:6) than cursed_arur. Must not be flattened to the same French word used for arur, or the book’s escalating severity from ch.1 to ch.4 is lost.
Medium Risk Terms
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Relational covenant bond, more than a legal contract. MALACHI APPLICATION: this single French word must serve at least four distinct covenant referents in this book — the covenant with Levi (2:4-8), the wife of your covenant / marriage covenant (2:14), the covenant of the fathers, and the messianic ‘messenger of the covenant’ (3:1). See covenant_with_levi, wife_of_covenant, and messenger_of_the_covenant below for each named application; keep ‘alliance’ lexically consistent across all four so the reader perceives Malachi’s unified covenant-theology argument.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: strictly sense-restricted to God’s own radiant divine glory (1:11, 1:14). Must NEVER be substituted for kavod’s distinct human-relational ‘honor a son owes a father’ sense in 1:6 — see honor_kavod_human below; conflating the two collapses Malachi 1:6’s father/son rhetorical logic.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). Baseline already cautions that ‘païens’ carries a pejorative connotation stronger than the neutral original sense and prefers ‘les nations’ in mission-emphasis contexts. MALACHI APPLICATION: apply this exact baseline preference at Malachi 1:11, a positive, hopeful, universal-worship text — use ‘les nations’ (see the_nations_goyim below), NOT ‘païens’, or the verse’s tone is inverted.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: renders the generic Hebrew Elohim/El wherever it occurs alongside YHWH in this book (e.g. 1:6, 2:10, 2:17, 3:8). Must retain the personal, covenantal referent, especially in confrontational rhetorical questions (‘Will man rob God?’, 3:8) — do not drift toward an abstract deist usage. Do not confuse with the book’s highest-frequency and doctrinally distinct term YHWH (see yhwh below), which this baseline entry never had to render in the NT-only Romans package.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 1:1’s superscription addresses the oracle explicitly ‘to Israel’. Keep the referent historical/theological (the covenant people), consistent with the baseline’s caution against modern nation-state conflation, especially given France’s significant Jewish community and this book’s Jewish-Christian comparative-theology sensitivities (see analysis/04_comparative_theology.md).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Royaume de Dieu
Transliteration: Royaume de Dieu
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi 1:14’s ‘le grand Roi’ (see great_king below) applies royal-sovereignty language to YHWH among the nations, thematically anticipating this doctrine without using the identical French phrase.
Day Of His Coming
Approved rendering: le jour de sa venue
Transliteration: yom bo’o
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
NEW. Malachi 3:2’s specific phrasing anchoring the messenger/refiner oracle to the wider Day-of-the-LORD motif. Should echo, not duplicate, day_of_the_lord’s fixed phrase so the reader senses the connection.
Temple
Approved rendering: temple
Transliteration: heikhal
Doctrine: God as King and the Sanctity of His House
Original: הֵיכָל
Category: Worship
NEW. The Jerusalem Temple, God’s royal residence and sanctuary (3:1). French Protestant usage reserves ‘temple’ for the Protestant church building, distinct from Catholic ‘église’; readers must be steered to the historical Jerusalem sanctuary, not a contemporary church building. Cross-reference the baseline’s ‘church’ note on French building vocabulary.
Refiners Fire
Approved rendering: feu de fondeur
Transliteration: esh metzaref
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
Rejected alternatives: feu purificateur (acceptable secondary gloss)
Original: אֵש מְצָרֵף
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Metallurgical refining fire (3:2-3) that separates dross from precious metal — purifying, not merely punitive, judgment. Must be echoed but distinguished from burning_oven (4:1).
Purify Refine Levites
Approved rendering: purifier / affiner
Transliteration: taher / zaqaq
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Rejected alternatives: sanctifier (imports NT sanctification register inappropriately here)
Original: טהר / זקק
Category: Sanctification
NEW. Two synonymous verbs (3:3) describing the restoration of the Levitical priesthood to fitness for service. Unlike the Romans baseline’s caution against ‘purification’ language for sanctification, HERE the literal ritual/metallurgical refining image IS the intended point — must not be suppressed.
Offering Minchah
Approved rendering: offrande
Transliteration: minchah
Doctrine: Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant
Rejected alternatives: sacrifice (too narrow; minchah is specifically the tribute/gift offering, distinct from zevach)
Original: מִנְחָה
Category: Worship
NEW. Recurs as a thread term across chapters 1 and 3 (1:10-13, 2:12-13, 3:3-4, 3:8); must be rendered consistently so the reader tracks the corrupt-to-purified-offering arc.
Honor Kavod Human
Approved rendering: honneur
Transliteration: kavod (human-relational sense)
Doctrine: The Priesthood’s Covenant Failure
Rejected alternatives: gloire (reserved for God’s own divine-glory sense per baseline)
Original: כָּבוֹד
Category: Worship
NEW. The honor a son owes a father, applied rhetorically to the honor the priests owe God (1:6). Must stay lexically distinct from ‘gloire’ or Malachi 1:6’s rhetorical logic collapses.
Fear Reverence Mora
Approved rendering: crainte
Transliteration: mora
Doctrine: The Priesthood’s Covenant Failure
Rejected alternatives: peur (too weak/secular, loses reverential register)
Original: מוֹרָא
Category: Worship
NEW. The reverent fear a servant owes a master, paired rhetorically with honor_kavod_human in 1:6.
Polluted Bread
Approved rendering: pain souillé
Transliteration: lechem megoal
Doctrine: Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant
Original: לֶחֶם מְגֹאָל
Category: Worship
NEW. Ritually/morally defiled offerings (1:7). Register must convey moral seriousness, not mere hygienic uncleanliness.
Great King
Approved rendering: le grand Roi
Transliteration: melekh gadol
Doctrine: God as King and the Sanctity of His House
Original: מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל
Category: Kingdom
NEW. Royal sovereignty title applied to YHWH among the nations (1:14), asserting universal, not merely national, kingship. Distinguish from any political/nationalist kingship reading; connects thematically to kingdom_of_god.
The Nations Goyim
Approved rendering: les nations
Transliteration: ha-goyim
Doctrine: Universal Worship of God’s Name among the Nations
Rejected alternatives: païens (explicitly cautioned against in baseline for positive/mission contexts)
Original: הַגּוֹיִם
Category: Mission
NEW. Malachi 1:11 pictures the nations positively as future worshippers of YHWH’s name. Applies the Romans baseline’s own guidance (see gentiles above) for goyim in hopeful, universal-worship contexts.
Cursed Arur
Approved rendering: maudit
Transliteration: arur
Doctrine: Covenant Curse and Final Judgment (cherem)
Original: אָרוּר
Category: Covenant
NEW. A formal covenantal curse (1:14), milder than cherem. Must NEVER be reused for cherem_utter_destruction (4:6) — reserve ‘maudit’ exclusively for this occurrence, or the book’s deliberate escalation in severity from ch.1 to ch.4 is erased.
Covenant With Levi
Approved rendering: l’alliance avec Lévi
Transliteration: berit Levi
Doctrine: The Priesthood’s Covenant Failure
Original: בְּרִית לֵוִי
Category: Covenant
NEW. The specific covenant grant governing the priestly line’s service and standing, broken by corrupt practice (2:4-8). Uses [TM REUSE] ‘alliance’.
Rob Qava
Approved rendering: voler / frauder
Transliteration: qava
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Tithing
Rejected alternatives: négliger (too soft, loses ‘theft’ force)
Original: קָבַע
Category: Tithing
NEW. The rhetorical accusation ‘Will man rob God?’ (3:8), framing tithe-withholding as theft against God himself. Must retain the shocking, direct force.
Windows Of Heaven
Approved rendering: les écluses des cieux
Transliteration: arubbot hashamayim
Doctrine: Blessing as Covenant Response to Obedience
Rejected alternatives: les fenêtres du ciel (acceptable literal alternative)
Original: אֲרֻבּוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם
Category: Blessing
NEW. Idiom for the sky opening to release blessing (3:10), echoing Genesis 7:11’s Flood narrative inverted to blessing — worth surfacing explicitly in teaching notes.
Those Who Fear The Lord
Approved rendering: ceux qui craignent le SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: yir’ei YHWH
Doctrine: The Faithful Remnant and Book of Remembrance
Original: יִרְאֵי יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW. Identifies the faithful remnant within corrupt Israel (3:16). ‘Craindre’ must retain reverent awe, not literal terror; the established French Bible idiom already carries this nuance correctly.
Treasured Possession
Approved rendering: un peuple précieux
Transliteration: segullah
Doctrine: Israel as God’s Treasured Possession
Rejected alternatives: un peuple spécial (too generic, loses possessive/treasured nuance)
Original: סְגֻלָּה
Category: Election
NEW. Israel as YHWH’s own treasured property (3:17; cf. Exod 19:5). Connects thematically to the baseline’s ‘adoption filiale’ and ‘élection’ doctrines — cross-reference in teaching notes, not the base text.
Righteous Wicked
Approved rendering: le juste / le méchant
Transliteration: tsaddiq / rasha
Doctrine: The Faithful Remnant and Book of Remembrance
Original: צַדִּיק / רָשָׁע
Category: Ethics
NEW. Moral-covenantal categories distinguishing the faithful from the unfaithful (3:18), anticipating the final separation of chapter 4. Shares the tsedeq root family with righteousness_cultic; low collision risk if kept adjectival.
Burning Oven
Approved rendering: une fournaise ardente
Transliteration: tannur bo’er
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
Original: תַּנּוּר בֹּעֵר
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Escalation of the refiners_fire motif from purifying to wholly consuming judgment (4:1). Must be a related but distinguishable French phrase, not a repetition of the refiner’s-fire wording.
Healing In Wings
Approved rendering: la guérison dans ses ailes
Transliteration: marpe bikhnafeha
Doctrine: Messianic Hope (Sun of Righteousness)
Original: מַרְפֵּא בִּכְנָפֶיהָ
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The sun’s healing rays pictured as wings (4:2), promising restorative outcomes for the faithful remnant. Keep as concrete image, not abstracted.
Elijah The Prophet
Approved rendering: Élie le prophète
Transliteration: Eliyyah ha-navi
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Original: אֵלִיָּה הַנָּבִיא
Category: Eschatology
NEW proper name + [TM REUSE] ‘prophète’. The promised eschatological forerunner (4:5); teach as a matched pair with my_messenger (3:1), both applied to John the Baptist in Luke 1:17.
Turn Hearts Fathers Children
Approved rendering: tourner/ramener le cœur des pères vers les fils
Transliteration: heshiv lev-avot al banim
Doctrine: The Call to Repentance before the Great Day
Original: הֵשִׁיב לֵב־אָבוֹת עַל־בָּנִים
Category: Repentance
NEW. Root-echoes 3:7’s shuv in causative form (4:6). Use a French verb cognate-consistent with return_repent_shuv so the reader perceives the deliberate root-echo structuring the book’s beginning and ending.
As In Days Of Old
Approved rendering: comme aux jours anciens et comme dans les années d’autrefois
Transliteration: kime olam u-cheshanim qadmoniyyot
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Rejected alternatives: comme avant (too vague, loses the deliberate double idiom)
Original: כִּימֵי עוֹלָם וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיּוֹת
Category: Covenant
NEW. A double idiom (3:4) pointing to an idealized past era of right worship; restoration framed as return, not novelty.
Who Can Endure
Approved rendering: qui pourra supporter / tenir
Transliteration: mi yekhil
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
Original: מִי יְכִיל
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Rhetorical question (3:2) underscoring universal human inability to withstand unmediated divine holiness apart from purification. Must retain the rhetorical, unanswerable force.
Social Justice Vice List
Approved rendering: sorciers, adultères, ceux qui jurent faussement, ceux qui oppriment le salarié
Transliteration: mekhashshefim, no’afim, nishba’im lashsheqer, oshqei sekhar sakhir
Doctrine: Social Justice: Oppression of the Vulnerable
NEW. A social-justice indictment list (3:5) covering the full range of covenant-breaking behavior, including oppression of widow, orphan, sojourner, and hired laborer. Register must avoid sounding anachronistically like modern French labor-law jargon (‘droit du travail’).
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: applied to Elijah in 4:5 (‘Élie le prophète’), the promised eschatological forerunner-prophet; teach as a matched pair with ‘mon messager’ (3:1), both fulfilled typologically in John the Baptist per Luke 1:17.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package (exact reuse). MALACHI APPLICATION: Malachi’s own opening genre-marker (massa, ‘oracle’) establishes the book itself as an inspired prophetic pronouncement; see oracle_burden below.
Fullers Soap
Approved rendering: savon de blanchisseur
Transliteration: borit mekhabbesim
Doctrine: The Day of the LORD and Coming Judgment
Original: בֹּרִית מְכַבְּסִים
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Harsh alkaline cleansing agent (3:2), parallel image to the refiner’s fire. Archaic trade image for modern French readers; brief explanatory gloss recommended in teaching contexts.
Sons Of Levi
Approved rendering: les fils de Lévi
Transliteration: bene Levi
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Original: בְּנֵי־לֵוִי
Category: Worship
NEW. The refining target of 3:3; proper-name-based. Link explicitly to priests_kohanim in teaching notes.
Sacrifice Zevach
Approved rendering: sacrifice
Transliteration: zevach
Doctrine: Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant
Original: זֶבַח
Category: Worship
NEW. Distinct term from minchah (1:8); keep the two lexically distinguished in French as in Hebrew.
Oracle Burden
Approved rendering: oracle
Transliteration: massa
Doctrine: Inspiration of the Prophetic Oracle
Rejected alternatives: fardeau (literal ‘burden’, sounds unnatural as a book-title genre marker in French)
Original: מַשָּׂא
Category: Scripture
NEW. Malachi 1:1’s opening genre-marker; a weighty, judgment-laden prophetic pronouncement. ‘Oracle’ is the standard TOB/BJ rendering for massa.
Edom
Approved rendering: Édom
Transliteration: Edom
Doctrine: Divine Election (Jacob and Esau)
Original: אֱדוֹם
Category: Covenant
NEW. Standard proper name; the nation descended from Esau, representing the rejected covenant-line nation (1:4).
Jacob
Approved rendering: Jacob
Transliteration: Ya’aqov
Doctrine: Divine Election (Jacob and Esau)
Original: יַעֲקֹב
Category: Covenant
NEW. Standard proper name; the patriarch chosen by God’s electing love (1:2), representing covenant Israel.
Blemished Animals
Approved rendering: boiteux, aveugle, malade
Transliteration: pisseach, iver, choleh
Doctrine: Corrupt Worship and a Broken Covenant
Original: פִּסֵּחַ, עִוֵּר, חֹלֶה
Category: Worship
NEW. Terms for physically defective sacrificial animals forbidden under Torah law (Lev 22:20-24), 1:8, 1:13. Torah-legal-background footnote recommended in teaching material.
Storehouse
Approved rendering: la maison du trésor
Transliteration: beit ha-otsar
Doctrine: Faithfulness in Tithing
Rejected alternatives: le grenier (acceptable secondary/agricultural-register gloss)
Original: בֵּית הָאוֹצָר
Category: Tithing
NEW. The physical Temple storage facility for tithes and offerings (3:10).
Book Of Remembrance
Approved rendering: le livre du souvenir
Transliteration: sefer zikkaron
Doctrine: The Faithful Remnant and Book of Remembrance
Original: סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן
Category: Eschatology
NEW. A written record kept before God (3:16), an ANE royal-court administrative image.
Pleasing Agreeable
Approved rendering: sera agréable
Transliteration: ve-arvah
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Rejected alternatives: sera conforme (too legal/procedural, loses relational-delight sense)
Original: וְעָרְבָה
Category: Worship
NEW. The restored offering’s genuine acceptability and delightfulness to God (3:4), not bare procedural compliance.
Prepare The Way
Approved rendering: préparer le chemin
Transliteration: u-finnah derekh
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Original: וְפִנָּה־דֶרֶךְ
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Royal-procession idiom for clearing obstacles ahead of a king’s advance (3:1). Idiom transfers naturally into French.
Suddenly
Approved rendering: soudain / tout à coup
Transliteration: u-fit’om
Doctrine: The Coming Messenger and Forerunner Theology
Original: וּפִתְאֹם
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Divine visitation is sovereign and unannounced in its timing, despite being foretold (3:1).
Judah Jerusalem
Approved rendering: Juda et Jérusalem
Transliteration: Yehudah v-Yerushalayim
Doctrine: Purification and Restoration of Worship
Original: יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָם
Category: Covenant
NEW. Proper names denoting the southern kingdom/tribe and its capital (3:4), metonymy for the whole worshipping covenant community.