Malachi 1:3

And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. AND I HATED ESAU - not positively, but relatively - i:e., I did not choose him out to be the object of gratuitous favour, as I did Jacob (cf. Luke 14:26, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother ... he cannot be my disciple," with Matthew 10:37, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me;" Genesis 29:30-1; Deuteronomy 21:15-5). In all these instances "hate" is a term used not positively, but relatively - i:e., to love one less than...

We now see what I have just referred to, — that the Jews are reminded of God’s gratuitous covenant, that they might cease to excuse their wickedness in having misused this singular favor. He does not then upbraid them here, because they had been as other men created by God, because God caused his sun to shine on them, because they were supplied with food from the earth; but he says, that they had been preferred to other people, not on account of their own merit, but because it had pleased God to choose their father Jacob. He might have here adduced Abraham as an example; but as Jacob and Esau proceeded from Abraham, with whom God had made the covenant, his favor was the more remarkable, inasmuch as though Abraham had been alone chosen by God, and other nations were passed by, yet from the very family which the Lord had adopted, one had been chosen while the other was rejected. When a com...

1-5 All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or spiritual privileges, come from the free love of God, who makes one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences....

Verse Malachi 1:3. _AND I HATED ESAU_] I have shown him _less love_; Genesis 29:30-1. I comparatively _hated_ him by giving him an inferior lot. And now, I have not only laid waste the dwelling-place of the Edomites, by the incursions of their enemies; but (Malachi 1:4) they shall remain the perpetual monuments of my vengeance. On the subject of _loving_ _Jacob_ and _hating Esau_, see the notes on Genesis 27:21-1, and Romans 9:13. Let it be remembered, 1. That there is not a word spoken here concerning the eternal

AND I MADE HIS MOUNTAINS A WASTE, AND HIS HERITAGE FOR THE JACKALS OF THE WILDERNESS - o Malachi attests the first stage of fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 3:19, vol. i. pp. 214, 215), “Edom shall be a desolate wilderness.” In temporal things, Esau’s blessing was identical with Jacob’s; “the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above;” and the rich soil on the terraces of its mountain-sides, though yielding nothing now except a wild beautiful vegetation, and its deep glens, attest what they once must have been, when artificially watered and cultivated. The first desolation must have been through Nebuchadnezzar , in his expedition against Egypt, when he subdued Moab and Ammon; and Edom lay in his way, as Jeremiah had foretold...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1:1-2:9 Part I. REPROOF OF THE PRIESTS FOR NEGLECT OF DIVINE SERVICE. MALACHI 1:1 § 1_. Heading and author. _THE BURDEN (Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 12:1; see note on Nahum 1:1). The word of the Lord is heavy and full of threats, but, as St. Jerome notes, it is also consolatory, because it is not "against" but to Israel. By this name the whole covenanted nation is designated, here, perhaps, wi

AND I HATED ESAU,.... Or, "rejected" him, as the Targum; did not love him as Jacob: this was a negative, not positive hatred; it is true of him, personally considered; not only by taking away the birthright and blessing from him, which he despised; but by denying him his special grace, leaving him in his sins, and to his lusts, so that he became a profane person; shared not in the grace of God here, and had no part in the eternal inheritance with the saints in light; and likewise it is true of his posterity, as the following instances show: AND LAID HIS MOUNTAINS AND HIS HERITAGE WASTE; which, according to Grotius, was done by Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the captivity of the Jews, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 49:7 but this was done by the Nabatheans n: Mount Seir was the famous mountain that Esau dwelt in,...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS 1. Jehovah's Love for His People CHAPTER 1:1-5 The message of Malachi begins with the sublime statement, “I have loved you, saith Jehovah.” It is the message to Israel. This love is written large on every page of their history. A former prophet gave the message from the Lord, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” Amos 3:2. And long before that Moses had told them, “Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day” Deuteronomy 10:15. And the man of God in his final utterance burst out in praise, “Yea, He loved the people” Deuteronomy 33:3. And this generation, brought ba

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...

DRAGONS. jackals. Compare Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 34:13.Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 49:33; Jeremiah 51:37....