{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"MAL","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Malachi","commonName":"Malachi","introduction":"MALACHI forms the transition link between the two dispensations, the Old and the New, \"the skirt and boundary of Christianity\" [TERTULLIAN], to which perhaps is due the abrupt earnestness which characterizes his prophecies. His very name is somewhat uncertain. Malachi is the name of an office, rather than a person, \"My messenger,\" and as such is found in Mal 3:1. The Septuagint favors this view in Mal 1:1; translate, not \"by Malachi,\" but \"by the hand of His messenger\" (compare Hag 1:13). Malachi is the last inspired messenger of the Old Testament, announcing the advent of the Great Messenger of the New Testament. The Chaldee paraphrase identifies him with Ezra wrongly, as Ezra is never called a prophet but a scribe, and Malachi never a scribe but a prophet. Still it hence appears that Malachi was by some old authorities not regarded as a proper name. The analogy of the headings of other prophets, however, favors the common view that Malachi is a proper name. As Haggai and Zechariah, the contemporary prophets, supported Joshua and Zerubbabel in the building of the temple, so he at a subsequent period supported the priest Ezra and the governor Nehemiah. Like that ruler, he presupposes the temple to have been already built (Mal 1:10; Mal 3:1-10). Both alike censure the abuses still unreformed (Neh 13:5, Neh. 13:15-30, the profane and mercenary character of the priests, the people's marriages contracted with foreigners, the non-payment of the tithes, and want of sympathy towards the poor on the part of the rich (Neh 6:7) implies that Nehemiah was supported by prophets in his work of reformation. The date thus will be about 420 B.C., or later. Both the periods after the captivity (that of Haggai and Zechariah, and that of Malachi) were marked by royal, priestly, and prophetic men at the head of God's people. The former period was that of the building of the temple; the latter, that of the restoration of the people and rebuilding of the city. It is characteristic of the people of God that the first period after the restoration was exclusively devoted to the rebuilding of the temple; the political restoration came secondarily. Only a colony of fifty thousand settled with Joshua and Zerubbabel in Palestine (Ezr 2:64). Even these became intermingled with the heathen around during the sixty years passed over by Ezra in silence (Ezr 9:6-15; Neh 1:3). Hence a second restoration was needed which should mould the national life into a Jewish form, re-establishing the holy law and the holy city--a work effected by Ezra and Nehemiah, with the aid of Malachi, in a period of about half a century, ending with the deaths of Malachi and Nehemiah in the last ten years of the fifth century B.C.; that is, the \"seven weeks\" (Dan 9:25) put in the beginning of the \"seventy\" by themselves, to mark the fundamental difference between them, the last period of Old Testament revelation, and the period which followed without any revelation (the sixty-two weeks), preceding the final week standing out in unrivalled dignity by itself as the time of Messiah's appearing. The seventy weeks thus begin with the seventh year of Artaxerxes who allowed Ezra to go to Jerusalem, 457 B.C., in accordance with the commandment which then went forth from God. Ezra the priest performed the inner work of purifying the nation from heathenish elements and reintroducing the law; while Nehemiah did the outer work of rebuilding the city and restoring the national polity [AUBERLEN]. VITRINGA makes the date of Malachi's prophecies to be about the second return of Nehemiah from Persia, not later than 424 B.C., the date of Artaxerxes' death (Neh 13:6). About this time Socrates was teaching the only approach to a pure morality which corrupt Athens ever knew. MOORE distinguishes six portions: (1) Charge against Israel for insensibility to God's love, which so distinguished Israel above Edom (Mal 1:1-5). (2) The priests are reproved for neglect and profanation (Mal. 1:6-2:9). (3) Mixed marriages, and the wrongs done to Jewish wives, are reproved (Mal 2:10-16). (4) Coming of Messiah and His forerunners (Mal. 2:17-3:6). (5) Reproof for tithes withheld (Mal 3:7-12). (6) Contrast between the godly and the ungodly at the present time, and in the future judgment; exhortation, therefore, to return to the law (Mal. 3:13-4:6).\n\nThe style is animated, but less grand, and the rhythm less marked, than in some of the older prophets.\n\nThe canonicity of the book is established by the references to it in the New Testament (Mat 11:10; Mat 17:12; Mar 1:2; Mar 9:11-12; Luk 1:17; Rom 9:13). \n\n\n\nNext: Malachi Chapter 1\n\n","order":39,"numberOfChapters":4,"sha256":"a9848b52750fafcb683e9d135e0b0fa047e903ae3ca8b7cb493af19374b68023","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAL/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAL","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":4,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAL/4.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAL","chapter":4},"totalNumberOfVerses":51},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["lay . . . to heart--My commands. \n\nsend a curse--rather, as Hebrew, \"the curse\"; namely, that denounced in Deu 27:15-26; Deu. 28:15-68. \n\ncurse your blessings--turn the blessings you enjoy into curses (Psa 106:15). \n\ncursed them--Hebrew, them severally; that is, I have cursed each one of your blessings.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["corrupt, &c.--literally, \"rebuke,\" answering to the opposite prophecy of blessing (Mal 3:11), \"I will rebuke the devourer.\" To rebuke the seed is to forbid its growing. \n\nyour--literally, \"for you\"; that is, to your hurt. \n\ndung of . . . solemn feasts--The dung in the maw of the victims sacrificed on the feast days; the maw was the perquisite of the priests (Deu 18:3), which gives peculiar point to the threat here. You shall get the dung of the maw as your perquisite, instead of the maw. \n\none shall take you away with it--that is, ye shall be taken away with it; it shall cleave to you wherever ye go [MOORE]. Dung shall be thrown on your faces, and ye shall be taken away as dung would be, dung-begrimed as ye shall be (Kg1 14:10; compare Jer 16:4; Jer 22:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["ye shall know--by bitter experience of consequences, that it was with this design I admonished you, in order \"that My covenant with Levi might be\" maintained; that is, that it was for your own good (which would be ensured by your maintaining the Levitical command) I admonished you, that ye should return to your duty [MAURER] (compare Mal 2:5-6). Malachi's function was that of a reformer, leading back the priests and people to the law (Mal 4:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["He describes the promises, and also the conditions of the covenant; Levi's observance of the conditions and reward (compare Num 25:11-13, Phinehas' zeal); and on the other hand the violation of the conditions, and consequent punishment of the present priests. \"Life\" here includes the perpetuity implied in Num 25:13, \"everlasting priesthood.\" \"Peace\" is specified both here and there. MAURER thus explains it; the Hebrew is, literally, \"My covenant was with him, life and peace (to be given him on My part), and I gave them to him: (and on his part) fear (that is, reverence), and he did fear Me,\" &c. The former portion of the verse expresses the promise, and Jehovah's fulfilment of it; the latter, the condition, and Levi's steadfastness to it (Deu 33:8-9). The Jewish priests self-deceivingly claimed the privileges of the covenant, while neglecting the conditions of it, as if God were bound by it to bless them, while they were free from all the obligation which it imposed to serve Him. The covenant is said to be not merely \"of life and peace,\" but \"life and peace\"; for the keeping of God's law is its own reward (Psa 19:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["law of truth was in his mouth--He taught the people the truths of the law in all its fulness (Deu 33:10). The priest was the ordinary expounder of the law; the prophets were so only on special occasions. \n\niniquity . . . not found--no injustice in his judicial functions (Deu 17:8-9; Deu 19:17). \n\nwalked with me--by faith and obedience (Gen 5:22). \n\nin peace--namely, the \"peace\" which was the fruit of obeying the covenant (Mal 2:5). Peace with God, man, and one's own conscience, is the result of \"walking with God\" (compare Job 22:21; Isa 27:5; Jam 3:18). \n\nturn may . . . from iniquity--both by positive precept and by tacit example \"walking with God\" (Jer 23:22; Dan 12:3; Jam 5:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["In doing so (Mal 2:6) he did his duty as a priest, \"for,\" &c. \n\nknowledge--of the law, its doctrines, and positive and negative precepts (Lev 10:10-11; Deu 24:8; Jer 18:18; Hag 2:11). \n\nthe law--that is, its true sense. \n\nmessenger of . . . Lord--the interpreter of His will; compare as to the prophets, Hag 1:13. So ministers are called \"ambassadors of Christ\" (Co2 5:20); and the bishops of the seven churches in Revelation, \"angels\" or messengers (Rev 2:1, Rev 2:8, Rev 2:12, Rev 2:18; Rev 3:1, Rev 3:7, Rev 3:14; compare Gal 4:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["out of the way--that is, from the covenant. \n\ncaused many to stumble--By scandalous example, the worse inasmuch as the people look up to you as ministers of religion (Sa1 2:17; Jer 18:15; Mat 18:6; Luk 17:1). \n\nat the law--that is, in respect to the observances of the law. \n\ncorrupted . . . covenant--made it of none effect, by not fulfilling its conditions, and so forfeiting its promises (Zac 11:10; Neh 13:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Because ye do not keep the condition of the covenant, I will not fulfil the promise. \n\npartial in the law--having respect to persons rather than to truth in the interpretation and administration of the law (Lev 19:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and repudiated their Jewish wives. \n\nHave we not all one father?--Why, seeing we all have one common origin, \"do we deal treacherously against one another\" (\"His brother\" being a general expression implying that all are \"brethren\" and sisters as children of the same Father above, Th1 4:3-6 and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare Mal 2:14 and Mal 2:11; Ezr 9:1-9), and so violating \"the covenant\" made by Jehovah with \"our fathers,\" by which it was ordained that we should be a people separated from the other peoples of the world (Exo 19:5; Lev 20:24, Lev 20:26; Deu 7:3). To intermarry with the heathen would defeat this purpose of Jehovah, who was the common Father of the Israelites in a peculiar sense in which He was not Father of the heathen. The \"one Father\" is Jehovah (Job 31:15; Co1 8:6; Eph 4:6). \"Created us\": not merely physical creation, but \"created us\" to be His peculiar and chosen people (Psa 102:18; Isa 43:1; Isa 45:8; Isa 60:21; Eph 2:10), [CALVIN]. How marked the contrast between the honor here done to the female sex, and the degradation to which Oriental women are generally subjected!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["dealt treacherously--namely, in respect to the Jewish wives who were put away (Mal 2:14; also Mal 2:10, Mal 2:15-16). \n\nprofaned the holiness of . . . Lord--by ill-treating the Israelites (namely, the wives), who were set apart as a people holy unto the Lord: \"the holy seed\" (Ezr 9:2; compare Jer 2:3). Or, \"the holiness of the Lord\" means His holy ordinance and covenant (Deu 7:3). But \"which He loved,\" seems to refer to the holy people, Israel, whom God so gratuitously loved (Mal 1:2), without merit on their part (Psa 47:4). \n\nmarried, &c.-- (Ezr 9:1-2; Ezr 10:2; Neh 13:23, &c.). \n\ndaughter of a strange god--women worshipping idols: as the worshipper in Scripture is regarded in the relation of a child to a father (Jer 2:27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["master and . . . scholar--literally, \"him that watcheth and him that answereth.\" So \"wakeneth\" is used of the teacher or \"master\" (Isa 50:4); masters are watchful in guarding their scholars. The reference is to the priests, who ought to have taught the people piety, but who led them into evil. \"Him that answereth\" is the scholar who has to answer the questions of his teacher (Luk 2:47) [GROTIUS]. The Arabs have a proverb, \"None calling and none answering,\" that is, there being not one alive. So GESENIUS explains it of the Levite watches in the temple (Psa 134:1), one watchman calling and another answering. But the scholar is rather the people, the pupils of the priests \"in doing this,\" namely, forming unions with foreign wives. \"Out of the tabernacles of Jacob\" proves it is not the priests alone. God will spare neither priests nor people who act so. \n\nhim that offereth--His offerings will not avail to shield him from the penalty of his sin in repudiating his Jewish wife and taking a foreign one.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["done again--\"a second time\": an aggravation of your offense (Neh 13:23-31), in that it is a relapse into the sin already checked once under Ezra (Ezr 9:10) [HENDERSON]. Or, \"the second time\" means this: Your first sin was your blemished offerings to the Lord: now \"again\" is added your sin towards your wives [CALVIN]. \n\ncovering . . . altar . . . with tears--shed by your unoffending wives, repudiated by you that ye might take foreign wives. CALVIN makes the \"tears\" to be those of all the people on perceiving their sacrifices to be sternly rejected by God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Wherefore?--Why does God reject our offerings? \n\nLord . . . witness between thee and . . . wife--(so Gen 31:49-50). \n\nof thy youth--The Jews still marry very young, the husband often being but thirteen years of age, the wife younger (Pro 5:18; Isa 54:6). \n\nwife of thy covenant--not merely joined to thee by the marriage covenant generally, but by the covenant between God and Israel, the covenant-people, whereby a sin against a wife, a daughter of Israel, is a sin against God [MOORE]. Marriage also is called \"the covenant of God\" (Pro 2:17), and to it the reference may be (Gen 2:24; Mat 19:6; Co1 7:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["MAURER and HENGSTENBERG explain the verse thus: The Jews had defended their conduct by the precedent of Abraham, who had taken Hagar to the injury of Sarah, his lawful wife; to this Malachi says now, \"No one (ever) did so in whom there was a residue of intelligence (discriminating between good and evil); and what did the one (Abraham, to whom you appeal for support) do, seeking a godly seed?\" His object (namely, not to gratify passion, but to obtain the seed promised by God) makes the case wholly inapplicable to defend your position. MOORE (from FAIRBAIRN) better explains, in accordance with Mal 2:10, \"Did not He make (us Israelites) one? Yet He had the residue of the Spirit (that is, His isolating us from other nations was not because there was no residue of the Spirit left for the rest of the world). And wherefore (that is, why then did He thus isolate us as) the one (people; the Hebrew is 'the one')? In order that He might seek a godly seed\"; that is, that He might have \"a seed of God,\" a nation the repository of the covenant, and the stock of the Messiah, and the witness for the one God amidst the surrounding polytheisms. Marriage with foreign women, and repudiation of the wives wedded in the Jewish covenant, utterly set aside this divine purpose. CALVIN thinks \"the one\" to refer to the conjugal one body formed by the original pair (Gen 2:24). God might have joined many wives as one with the one husband, for He had no lack of spiritual being to impart to others besides Eve; the design of the restriction was to secure a pious offspring: but compare Note, see on Mal 2:10. One object of the marriage relation is to raise a seed for God and for eternity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["putting away--that is, divorce. \n\nfor one covereth violence with . . . garment--MAURER translates, \"And (Jehovah hateth him who) covereth his garment (that is, his wife, in Arabic idiom; compare Gen 20:16, 'He is to thee a covering of thy eyes'; the husband was so to the wife, and the wife to the husband; also Deu 22:30; Rut 3:9; Eze 16:8) with injury.\" The Hebrew favors \"garment,\" being accusative of the thing covered. Compare with English Version, Psa 73:6, \"violence covereth them as a garment.\" Their \"violence\" is the putting away of their wives; the \"garment\" with which they try to cover it is the plea of Moses' permission (Deu 24:1; compare Mat 19:6-9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["wearied . . . Lord-- (Isa 43:24). This verse forms the transition to Mal 3:1, &c. The Jewish skeptics of that day said virtually, God delighteth in evil-doers (inferring this from the prosperity of the surrounding heathen, while they, the Jews, were comparatively not prosperous: forgetting that their attendance to minor and external duties did not make up for their neglect of the weightier duties of the law; for example, the duty they owed their wives, just previously discussed); or (if not) Where (is the proof that He is) the God of judgment? To this the reply (Mal 3:1) is, \"The Lord whom ye seek, and whom as messenger of the covenant (that is, divine ratifier of God's covenant with Israel) ye delight in (thinking He will restore Israel to its proper place as first of the nations), shall suddenly come,\" not as a Restorer of Israel temporally, but as a consuming Judge against Jerusalem (Amo 5:18-20). The \"suddenly\" implies the unpreparedness of the Jews, who, to the last of the siege, were expecting a temporal deliverer, whereas a destructive judgment was about to destroy them. So skepticism shall be rife before Christ's second coming. He shall suddenly and unexpectedly come then also as a consuming Judge to unbelievers (Pe2 3:3-4). Then, too, they shall affect to seek His coming, while really denying it (Isa 5:19; Jer 17:15; Eze 12:22, Eze 12:27).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Malachi Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"REPROOF OF THE PRIESTS FOR VIOLATING THE COVENANT; AND THE PEOPLE ALSO FOR MIXED MARRIAGES AND UNFAITHFULNESS. (Mal. 2:1-17)\n\nfor you--The priests in particular are reproved, as their part was to have led the people aright, and reproved sin, whereas they encouraged and led them into sin. Ministers cannot sin or suffer alone. They drag down others with them if they fall [MOORE].\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAL/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAL","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAL/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAL","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MAL/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MAL","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":16}