Ch. Malachi 1:1. Title

1. burden] either burden, from its weighty character as a Divine announcement, or oracle as that which is ‘taken up’ (Exodus 20:17 : Numbers 23:18) by the speaker. See note on Zechariah 9:1 in this Series.

Malachi] See Introd. pp. 7–9.

2. I have loved you] I have loved you with an everlasting (Jeremiah 31:3) and unchangeable (Romans 11:29) love. This is the keynote of all that follows. On this rests Jehovah’s claim to the filial honour and reverential fear which had been withheld from Him (Malachi 1:6); on this the patient forbearance of the present (Malachi 3:6), and the bright promise of the future (Malachi 4:2). This is the light that casts the dark shadow of the people’s ingratitude across the prophet’s page, and that shines through and beyond the darkness, unquenched and unquenchable.

Wherein] These short pointed questions are a characteristic of Malachi’s style, and lend great force to it. See Introd. p. 11.

I loved Jacob] The proof of this is contained in the implied contrast which follows, Comp. Genesis 25:23; Romans 9:10-13.

Ch. Malachi 1:2-5. Introductory Appeal

These verses form an exordium to the whole Book. The ungrateful disposition of the people and the unchanging love of God are in view in all that follows.

3. for the dragons] Rather, jackals. The unusual form of the word here (fem. instead of masc. as elsewhere) has led many to render, dwellings (LXX. δώματα ἐρήμου; and Syr.). But the derivation and meaning are not satisfactory. Rather, with R.V., I made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Unless indeed we neglect the accents and adopt a third rendering, which seems still better to preserve the parallelism, I made his mountains a desolation, and his heritage a wilderness for jackals.

The desolation of Edom here referred to was in all probability caused by Nebuchadnezzar, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:17-22. Comp. Jeremiah 27:3-6). See Obadiah, Introd. pp. 20, 22, in this Series.

4. impoverished] Rather (with R.V. text, and so in Jeremiah 5:17), beaten down. “So Ephraim said of old ‘in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.’ Isaiah 9:9-10.” Pusey.

return and build] This rendering is retained in R.V., but as there is no evidence that Edom was carried away captive ‘return and build’ is, probably, according to a well-known Heb. idiom =‘rebuild.’ (Comp. Ezekiel 26:8; Ezekiel 26:12-14.) This Israel ‘loved’ of God had done, but Esau ‘hated’ of Him should not do.

border] i.e. land, or territory, as in Malachi 1:5 below. It is frequently rendered coasts, in A.V., e.g. 1 Samuel 11:3; 1 Samuel 11:7.

for ever] For the subsequent history of Edom, as fulfilling this prediction, see reference to Obadiah in note on Malachi 1:3 above.

5. your eyes shall see] Unharmed and in safety yourselves you shall witness the overthrow of Edom (comp. Psalm 91:7-8).

will be magnified from] Rather, be magnified over. It is an ascription of praise (comp. Psalm 48:1) to God who extends, as it were, His tutelary care over Israel, while utter destruction overtakes Edom. The contrast with Edom is emphasized by the insertion of the personal pronoun, “ye (Jews) shall say.”

Ch. Malachi 1:6 to Malachi 3:6. Rebuke and threatened punishment of the Priests and People

Ch. Malachi 1:6-14. Rebuke of the Priests

O priests] On them first the rebuke justly falls, because they were chiefly responsible for the ungrateful return made by the people to the love of Jehovah. But in them, as its representatives, the whole nation is addressed and reproved.

7. Ye offer polluted bread] i.e. sacrifices. The word is often used in this sense and rendered food; e.g. Leviticus 3:11; Leviticus 3:16. Elsewhere the sacrifices are called, the bread or food of God. Leviticus 21:6; Leviticus 21:8; Ezekiel 44:7.

Their duty, as expounders of the Law (ch. Malachi 2:7), was to refuse to offer such sacrifices when they were brought to them, and to teach the people that they were expressly forbidden. Leviticus 22:17-25; Deuteronomy 15:21. “Sacerdotes debuerant illa omnia rejicere, et potius claudere Templum Dei, quam ita promiscue admittere quæ Deus sibi offerri prohibuerat.” Calvin.

polluted thee] Comp. “ye have profaned me,” Ezekiel 13:19, R.V. “It is a bold expression. God speaks of our acts with an unveiled plainness, which we should not dare to use.” Pusey.

ye say] by your conduct, if not in words.

8. if] Rather, When. Their poverty since the return from Babylon might possibly be urged by them as an excuse for this.

Is it not evil?] Rather, It is no evil!, ironically, as in R.V.

offer it] The R.V. renders, present it, with a view no doubt to indicate that it is not the same Hebrew word as is rendered offer in Malachi 1:7 and in the former part of this verse.

thy governor] It is a foreign title, Pechah, that is here used, and so a badge of the continued servitude of the nation; though it may have been borne at this time by Jews, as it was by Zerubbabel at the Return from the Captivity. See note on Haggai 1:1.

accept thy person] i.e. regard thee with favour, as in Malachi 1:9, and elsewhere. The phrase, however, often occurs in a bad sense of exercising partiality, e.g. Leviticus 19:15; Psalm 82:2.

9. beseech God] lit. stroke or smooth the face of God, i.e. propitiate or seek the favour of God. See Daniel 9:13; Psalm 45:12, and note on Zechariah 7:2.

It is not a call to repentance, but a challenge to put it to the proof whether, their conduct being such as it is (“this hath been by your means”), God will regard them in the discharge of their office as intercessors for the people.

this hath been] such irreverence as has been described above. Or if we follow the more exact marginal rendering both of A.V. and R.V., “This hath been,” i.e. such offerings have been received, “from your hand.”

regard your persons] Rather, accept any of your persons, R.V. Is there one of you whose person He will accept?

10. Who is there even &c. Rather, with the majority of modern commentators and with R.V. Oh, that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle [fire on] my altar in vain!

Better no sacrifices at all than such sacrifices as these. Better a Temple closed than a Temple profaned. Comp. Isaiah 1:12-13.

the doors] not of the Sanctuary or Temple proper (ναός), but either of the inner court in which the altar stood, or perhaps of the whole sacred inclosure (ἱερόν). Comp. 2 Chronicles 28:24; 2 Chronicles 29:3; Acts 21:30.

an offering] The Hebrew word (minchah) is that commonly used for vegetable, as distinguished from animal sacrifices (Psalm 40:7; Jeremiah 17:26; Daniel 9:27). Here however, as elsewhere (Genesis 4:4-5; 1 Samuel 2:17; Zephaniah 3:10), it has the more general sense of offerings of any kind. The proper meaning of the word, with which this general sense most nearly accords, is a gift. See Genesis 32:14; Genesis 32:19; Genesis 32:21; Genesis 43:11.

11. For] “I will no longer accept the local and polluted offering, for I will substitute for it a pure and universal offering.” “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”

my name shall be great] The A.V. supplies shall be here and twice again in this verse (incense shall be offered; my name shall be great), and the R.V. is, though with shall be in the margin. The reference may well be to the present as foreshadowing the future; to the spiritual offering of prayer and praise already offered in their synagogues and προσευχαί by the Jews of the Dispersion, whereby proselytes were won, and the way prepared for the New Dispensation and the abolition of the Temple ritual. The view that Almighty God is here recognising the worship of the heathen world as in reality offered to Him is quite inadmissible. The whole tenor of the Old Testament emphatically contradicts it, and the teaching of the New Testament is accordant and explicit: “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20, cited from Deuteronomy 32:17). The terms of the prophecy itself forbid such an interpretation: for Jehovah Himself expressly declares that incense and offering are offered to His name, and that His name is great.

The prophecy of this verse is at once repeated and expounded by our Lord Himself. John 4:21-24.

incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering] There has been difference of opinion as to the grammatical construction of this clause, but the arrangement and rendering of A.V. is retained in R.V. and has the support of many critical authorities.

By “incense” and “offering” we are to understand those “spiritual sacrifices” of prayer and praise (Hebrews 13:15) and almsgiving (ib. Hebrews 13:16; Php 4:18) and self-dedication (Romans 12:1), which all Christians as a “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5) are privileged to offer, and which are “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. The more enlightened among the Jews recognised such spiritual sacrifices under the typical offerings of the ceremonial law, and they were therefore in no danger of giving a material interpretation to a prophecy like this. Before the prophecy was fulfilled it had come to be a matter of popular Jewish belief and practice that incense was the symbol of prayer. (Luke 1:9-10). The Psalmist saw the same spiritual significance in “incense” and “offering” (minchah, as here, Psalm 141:2). It has been supposed that by the offering, or minchah, of this verse, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are intended. But if that be the case we have here a prophecy of the universal offering of literal incense also; for by no sound canon of interpretation can we give a material sense to one (offering) and a figurative sense to the other (incense) of two words which are thus placed by a writer in the same category. And then it follows that incense is as necessary a part of Christian worship, as “the bread and wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received.”

It has been too hastily assumed that the early Christian writers put this interpretation on the minchah here foretold. Justin Martyr, for example, affirms that Almighty God in this passage declares by anticipation His acceptance of those who offer the sacrifices prescribed by Christ, that is to say “those sacrifices which in the eucharist of the bread and cup are offered by Christians in every part of the earth.” But he presently makes it clear that it is not the bread and cup themselves that he means. “I too assert,” he says, “that prayers and giving of thanks, offered by worthy worshippers, are the only sacrifices which are perfect and acceptable to God. And these alone moreover have Christians learned to offer even in the memorial of their dry and liquid sustenance, in which too the remembrance is made of the passion which for their sakes the Son of God endured.” (Dial. cum Tryph. § 177.)

12. have profaned] Rather, profane, R.V. lit. are (habitually) profaning.

the table of the Lord &c.] The reference is to the maintenance of the priests by their share in the sacrifices. After allowing unworthy sacrifices to be offered (Malachi 1:8), they complained that their service at the altar was inadequately remunerated, and murmured at their allotted portion as “contemptible”. The expression, “the fruit thereof,” is very doubtful. The word occurs again (K’ri) Isaiah 57:19, but there the K’thibh is נוב. Probably it should be omitted here altogether. The mistake may have arisen from a scribe beginning to write וניב instead of ונבזה. Then he put dots over the first word וֹנֹיֹבֹ to denote that it was to be cancelled, but this was overlooked. Jerome explains it of the fire on the altar, taking also אכלו as a verb, ‘cum igne qui illud devorat,’ which of course is wrong. The LXX render it τὰ ἐπιτιθέμενα αὐτῷ.

13. what a weariness is it!] i.e. the service of the Sanctuary.

torn] Rather, taken by violence. R.V.

ye brought an offering] Rather, ye bring the offering, R.V. The reference is perhaps to “the (stated, public) offerings,” which the priests provided out of the Temple funds entrusted to them (Nehemiah 10:32-33). Comp. “the offering of Judah and Jerusalem,” Malachi 3:4. By purchasing cheap and unworthy animals they would increase their own portion of the fund. But Malachi 1:12; Malachi 1:14 make it clear that similar abuses were tolerated in the private sacrifices of individuals.

14. a corrupt thing] or, a blemished thing, R.V. The word is feminine, and the meaning may perhaps be, that for a perfect male, which he has in his flock and therefore could offer, as the law required (Leviticus 22:18-19), he substituted a blemished female.