Malachi 2:17

Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD WITH YOUR WORDS - (). YET YE SAY, WHEREIN HAVE WE WEARIED HIM? WHEN YE SAY, EVERYONE THAT DOETH EVIL IS GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND HE DELIGHTETH IN THEM; OR, WHERE IS THE GOD OF JUDGMENT? This verse forms the transition to , "The Lord shall suddenly come," etc. The Jewish sceptics of that day said virtually God delighteth in evil doers (inferring this from the prosperity of the surrounding pagan, while they, the Jews, were comparatively not prosperous: forgetting that their attendance to minor and external duties...

The Prophet here reproves the Jews who expostulated with God in their adversity, as though he had undeservedly forsaken them, and had not brought them immediate help. Thus are hypocrites wont to do; unless God immediately assists them, they not only indirectly complain, but also break out into open blasphemies; for they think that God is bound to them, and hence they assail him more boldly, and even with greater freedom and insolence. It is indeed a proof of true piety when we patiently submit to the judgments of God, and when, as Jeremiah teaches us by his own example, “we sustain his wrath, because we know that we have sinned.” (Jeremiah 3:14.) But as hypocrites are conscious of nothing wrong, (for they flatter themselves, and stupify their own consciences,) because they examine not themselves, they think that God acts unjustly towards them when he does not immediately bring them aid....

10-17 Corrupt practices are the fruit of corrupt principles; and he who is false to his God, will not be true to his fellow mortals. In contempt of the marriage covenant, which God instituted, the Jews put away the wives they had of their own nation, probably to make room for strange wives. They made their lives bitter to them; yet, in the sight of others, they pretend to be tender of them. Consider she is thy wife; thy own; the nearest relation thou hast in the world. The wife is to be looked on, not as a servant, but as a companion to the husband. There is an oath of God between them, which is not to be trifled with. Man and wife should continue to their lives' end, in holy love and peace. Did not God make one, one Eve for one Adam? Yet God could have made another Eve. Wherefore did he make but one woman for one man? It was that the children might be made a seed to serve him. Husbands...

Verse Malachi 2:17. _YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD_] He has borne with you so long, and has been provoked so often, that he will bear it no longer. It is not fit that he should. _EVERY ONE THAT DOETH EVIL_] Ye say that it is _right_ in the sight of the Lord to put away a wife, because she has no longer found favour in the sight of her husband. And because it has not been signally punished hitherto, ye blaspheme and cry out, "Where is the God of judgment?" Were he such as he is represented, would he not speak out? All these things show that this people were horribly corrupt. The priests were bad; the prophets were bad; the Levites were bad; and no wonder that the people were irreligious, profane, profligate, and cruel....

YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD WITH YOUR WORDS - o “By your blasphemous words, full of unbelief and mistrust, you have in a manner wearied God. He speaks of God, after the manner of men, as a man afflicted by the ills of others. Whence also the Lord says in Isaiah Isaiah 1:14, “I am weary to bear them,” and Isaiah 43:24, “thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins; thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities.” In like way the Apostle says Ephesians 4:30. With the same contumacy as before, and unconsciousness of sin, they ask, “Wherein?” It is the old temptation at the prosperity of the wicked. “Does God love the wicked? if not, why does He not punish them

EXPOSITION MALACHI 2:1 _§ 4. For these derelictions of duty the priests are threatened with punishment._ MALACHI 2:1 THIS COMMANDMENT. The threat or announcement is called a commandment, because God ordains it and imposes its execution on certain instruments. (For the expression, camp. Leviticus 25:21.) The threat is contained in Malachi 2:2, Malachi 2:3. MALACHI 2:2

YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD WITH YOUR WORDS,.... As well as with their actions; see Isaiah 43:24 this is said after the manner of men, they saying those things which were displeasing and provoking to him, and which he could not bear to hear; or otherwise weariness properly cannot be attributed to God: YET YE SAY, WHEREIN HAVE WE WEARIED HIM? as if they were clear and innocent; or, as the Targum, "if ye should say"; though they might not express themselves in words in such an impudent manner; yet should they say so in their hearts, or supposing they should utter such words with their lips, out of the abundance of their evil hearts, the answer is ready: WHEN YE SAY, EVERY ONE THAT DOETH EVIL [IS] GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND HE DELIGHTETH IN THEM; which they concluded from the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous; so murmurin

THE REBUKE OF THE PRIESTS CHAPTER 1:6-2:9 The priests, the religious leaders of the people, are described first in their evil ways, and rebuked. But the rebuke includes the entire people, for it is true, “like priests like people.” The Lord called Israel to be His firstborn son, and therefore, nationally, He is their Father. He is the Lord, and Israel called to be His servant. But they had not honored Him, as a son should honor the father by obedience; they did not fear Him, but despised His Name. This charge brought forth from the side of the priests another brazen statement, the result of their hypocritical self-righteousness. They answered back, demanding proof of the charge by saying, “Wherein have we despised Thy Name?” They seemed to be hardened in their consciences, though they kept up outward appearances. Such, too, is the religious condition in much of Christendom. Another char...

MALACHI 2:17 TO MALACHI 3:6. THE COMING OF JUDGMENT. This passage is addressed to those of the prophet's contemporaries who were so perplexed by the state of things around them that they had become sceptical of God's justice. The times were out of joint, prosperity was the lot of the wicked instead of the righteous. Their querulousness became a burden to Yahweh, so that He announces His immediate intervention; the day of Yahweh, long regarded as the panacea for all Israel's ills, is about to dawn. Malachi, like Amos (Amos 5:18) and other prophets, stamps the popular conception with an ethical value. Yahweh is even now sending His forerunner, possibly to be identified with Elijah ...

SAY. have said. EVERY ONE, &c. Some codices read "All who do wrong are", &c. EVIL. violence. Hebrew. _ra_. _a._ App-44....