Malachi 1:2-5

Yahweh's Love for Israel. This truth is questioned by some of the prophet's contemporaries, who are then reminded of the contrasted fortunes of the nations descended from Jacob and Esau. These peoples (Israel and Edom), sprung from twin brothers, and occupying adjacent lands, might have been expected to share equally in Yahweh's favour, but the recent desolation of Edom (probably by the Nabatean Arabs, who drove the Edomites away from their old territory to the district S. of Judah, hence called Idumæ a) shows that Yahweh metes out differential treatment. He will frustrate any attempt on Edom's part to reoccupy its former territory, and men will recognise that Yahweh is great, not only in Israel, but beyond it. The reason for this disparate action is found in the different religious temperaments of the two peoples, which perpetuate those of their eponyms. Edom reproduced the profanity of Esau; they were a people undisciplined and unspiritual, with no sense of the sanctities of life; Israel, like Jacob, had many and grave defects, yet withal a true realization of God's nature and will, and a sense of kinship and communion with Him (Genesis 25:19 *). The mutual jealousy and hostility of the two peoples finds frequent expression in OT, e.g. Obadiah 1:10, Ezekiel 35, Jeremiah 49, Isaiah 34, 63.

Malachi 1:2 b and Malachi 1:3 are used by Paul in Romans 9:13.

Malachi 1:5. ye is emphatic; mg. should be followed except for the second note in Malachi 1:4.