Malachi 2 - Introduction
_HE SHARPLY REPROVETH THE PRIESTS FOR NEGLECTING THEIR COVENANT; AND THE PEOPLE FOR IDOLATRY, FOR ADULTERY, AND FOR INFIDELITY._ _Before Christ about 400._... [ Continue Reading ]
_HE SHARPLY REPROVETH THE PRIESTS FOR NEGLECTING THEIR COVENANT; AND THE PEOPLE FOR IDOLATRY, FOR ADULTERY, AND FOR INFIDELITY._ _Before Christ about 400._... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS COMMANDMENT IS FOR YOU— _This decree is for you,_ or, _this is decreed concerning you;_ for here is no commandment given to the priest, only punishment is denounced upon them, if they do not repent.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL EVEN SEND A CURSE UPON YOU— _I will send a famine upon you._ The last clause should be rendered, _Yea, I will therefore curse them_ [that is to say, the blessings], _because you do not repent. I will curse your blessings,_ means "those gifts which are brought to you from the productions of th... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL CORRUPT YOUR SEED, &C.— _Behold, I am about to take away the shoulder from you_ [namely, the right shoulder, which, by the law, was the peculiar portion of the priests]; _and to throw the fat into your faces, even the fat which is offered in your sacrifices_ [meaning the fat which cov... [ Continue Reading ]
MY COVENANT WAS WITH HIM, &C.— Here the word _covenant_ is taken in a good sense; for in this and the two following verses, the nature of the covenant of God with Levi is explained, as in the eighth verse these corrupt priests are reproved for having violated that covenant. The passage should be ren... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE WE NOT ALL ONE FATHER? &C.— Here a new section begins, wherein the prophet severely reproves the people for marrying strange wives, which was much practised in Ezra's and Nehemiah's time, who expressed great detestation of it. Ezra 9:1.Nehemiah 13:23. The prophet begins his expostulation with p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD WILL CUT OFF, &C.— _Whosoever doeth this, the Lord will cut off for him both boy and girl, from the tabernacle of Jacob, that he may not offer an offering,_ &c. Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS HAVE YE DONE AGAIN— _This also you have done; you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with groanings; so that no respect is now had to your offering, nor is any thing accepted from your hand._ The priests not only had married strange wives, but also divorced tho... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DID NOT HE MAKE ONE?— Houbigant renders the passage, _And hath he made thee one flesh and one spirit with her? And what does he require but a godly seed, and that you may mutually keep your spirit, and not deal treacherously?_ &c. Malachi 2:16. _For whoever putteth away his wife through hatred,... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD, &C.— A new discourse begins here, and these words properly belong to the next chapter, where an answer is given to the objection proposed. See Malachi 3:2; Malachi 3:5; Malachi 3:18. It is the old objection against Providence, taken from the prosperity of the wicked; which... [ Continue Reading ]