Ralph L. Smith renders Mal 3:6 thusly:
“Because I
(am) Yahweh, I do not change.
But you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. (Ralph L. Smith, Micah-Malachi [Word Biblical
Commentary 32; Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1984], 330)
Smith offers the following textual note to
“I do not change:
6a. לא שׁניתי
“I do change,” a qal of. of שׁנה. God is not stating an abstract
theological principle concerning the immutability of his nature. He is simply
denying the charge of his disputants that he is unreliable, undependable,
capricious. The question is about Yahweh’s fidelity. Nahum Waldmann says
that an Akkadian equivalent of שׁנה means, “to go back on one’s word, change,
renege.” He translates this expression, “For I am the Lord have not gone back
on my word” (JBL 93 [1974] 544; cf. Prov 24:21). (Ibid., 331, emphasis
added)
