Malachi 2:9

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Therefore.—I am no longer bound by the covenant I made with the tribe of Levi, and, instead of “life and peace,” I give you contempt, &c.

In the law—i.e., in the administration of justice. The authority of the priests, Levites, and of the judges of the day, in all matters ceremonial and civil, is expressly inculcated by Deuteronomy 17:8-13. It was in accordance with this passage that our Lord said (Matthew 23:2): “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do,” &c.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-9 What is here said of the covenant of priesthood, is true of the covenant of grace made with all believers, as spiritual priests. It is a covenant of life and peace; it assures all believers of all happiness, both in this world and in that to come. It is an honour to God's servants to be employed as his messengers. The priest's lips should not keep knowledge from his people, but keep it for them. The people are all concerned to know the will of the Lord. We must not only consult the written word, but desire instruction and advice from God's messengers, in the affairs of our souls. Ministers must exert themselves to the utmost for the conversion of sinners; and even among those called Israelites, there are many to be turned from iniquity. Those ministers, and those only, are likely to turn men from sin, who preach sound doctrine, and live holy lives according to the Scripture. Many departed from this way; thus they misled the people. Such as walk with God in peace and righteousness, and turn others from sin, honour God; he will honour them, while those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore have I made you contemptible - They had said in their hearts Malachi 1:7, "The table of the Lord is contemptible." So God would requite them "measure for measure." Yet not only so, but in their office as judges, against the repeated protestations in the law Leviticus 19:15, "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor Deuteronomy 1:17, ye shall not respect persons in judgment Deuteronomy 16:19, thou shall not wrest judgment," he says,

Ye have accepted persons in the law - You have interpreted the law differently for rich and poor, or have put it in force against the poor, not against the rich. It would include actual bribery; but there are many more direct offences against equal justice. How differently is the like offence against the eighth commandment visited upon the poor who have real temptation to it, and the rich who have none, but the lust of the eyes!

Crows he condones, vexes the simple dove - That contempt which they cast upon God and His law, by wresting it out of respect to persons, that so they might gain favor and respect from them, so honoring them more than Him, and seeking to please them more than Him, will He cast back on them making them contemptible even in the eyes of those, from whom they thought by that means to find respect.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. Because ye do not keep the condition of the covenant, I will not fulfil the promise.

partial in the law—having respect to persons rather than to truth in the interpretation and administration of the law (Le 19:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore, because you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, and have dishonoured me, and made my sacrifices contemptible,

have I also made you contemptible and base; I have left you under the contempt of the people, who think basely of you, as you deserve; you have dishonoured me, and I have made, and will make, good my word, you shall be lightly esteemed.

Before all the people; there are none but account you an unworthy, unthankful, profane, and unjust generation, neither fit to serve God nor guide man.

According as ye have not kept my ways; your punishment is as your sin; you forsook the law of God, and made his table and his bread contemptible, now I make you contemptible; you were weary of my service, and the people age weary of such priests.

But have been partial in the law; you have perverted the law to please great men, or to favour yourselves; or, to speak all in few words, you have declined the true judgment of God’s law to serve some unworthy design or other. so that none could be sure of a right interpretation, or of a just judgment, or of a safe and sure direction from you.

Therefore, because you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, and have dishonoured me, and made my sacrifices contemptible,

have I also made you contemptible and base; I have left you under the contempt of the people, who think basely of you, as you deserve; you have dishonoured me, and I have made, and will make, good my word, you shall be lightly esteemed.

Before all the people; there are none but account you an unworthy, unthankful, profane, and unjust generation, neither fit to serve God nor guide man.

According as ye have not kept my ways; your punishment is as your sin; you forsook the law of God, and made his table and his bread contemptible, now I make you contemptible; you were weary of my service, and the people age weary of such priests.

But have been partial in the law; you have perverted the law to please great men, or to favour yourselves; or, to speak all in few words, you have declined the true judgment of God’s law to serve some unworthy design or other. so that none could be sure of a right interpretation, or of a just judgment, or of a safe and sure direction from you.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base,.... When their city and temple were destroyed by the Romans, and they were carried captive by them, and became a taunt and a proverb in all places where they came:

before all the people; the nations of the world, among whom they were scattered:

according as ye have not kept my ways; neither those which the law directed to, either moral or ceremonial; nor what the Gospel directed to, the ordinances and institutions of Christ, particularly baptism, which the Jews rejected against themselves, Luke 7:30,

but have been partial in the law; in the observance of it, attending to the lesser, and taking no notice of the weightier matters of it, as the Jews are charged by Christ, Matthew 23:23 and in the interpretation of it, restraining its sense only to outward actions, for which they are reproved, Matthew 5:1 or "received faces", or "accepted persons in the law" (x); in matters of the law they were concerned in, they had respect to the persons of men, by giving the sense of it, and pronouncing judgment, in favour of some, to the prejudice of others, wrongly.

(x) "et accepistis faciem in lege", Pagninus; "assumentes facies", Montanus; "suscipitis faciem", Piscator; "accipitis faciem", Cocceius; "et ferentes faciem in lege", Burkius.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. been partial] Lit. had respect of persons. R.V.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Contemptible. The glory of the priesthood and the honour that belonged to it (Ecclus. 45:7, etc.) were now turned into disgrace and contempt, when men compared the actual with the ideal. "Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Samuel 2:30). Have been partial in the law; Revised Version, have had respect of persons in the law; or, in your teaching, as vers. 6, 8. The prophet names one special sin of the priests, and that the most flagrant - perversion of judgment, partiality in the administration of the Law. The same complaint is found in Micah 3:11 (comp. 2 Chronicles 19:7). Malachi 2:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Malachi 2:8. "But ye have departed from the way, have made many to stumble at the law, have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. Malachi 2:9. Thus I also make you despised and base with all the people, inasmuch as ye do not keep my ways, and respect person in the law." הדּרך is the way depicted in Malachi 2:6 and Malachi 2:7, in which the priests ought to have walked. הכשׁלתּם בּתּורה does not mean "ye have caused to fall by instruction" (Koehler); for, in the first place, hattōrâh (with the article) is not the instruction or teaching of the priests, but the law of God; and secondly, ב with כּשׁל denotes the object against which a man stumbles and which causes him to fall. Hitzig has given the correct explanation: ye have made the law to many a מכשׁול, instead of the light of their way, through your example and through false teaching, as though the law allowed or commanded things which in reality are sin. In this way they have corrupted or overthrown the covenant with Levi. הלּוי, with the article, is not the patriarch Levi, but his posterity, really the priesthood, as the kernel of the Levites. Hence Jehovah also is no longer bound by the covenant, but withdraws from the priests what He granted to the Levi who was faithful to the covenant, viz., life and salvation (Malachi 2:5), and makes them contemptible and base with all the people. This is simply a just retribution for the fact, that the priests depart from His ways and have respect to men. Battōrâh, in the law, i.e., in the administration of the law, they act with partiality. For the fact itself compare Micah 3:11.