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A revelation, the LORD’s word to Israel by Malachi.
Verse 1. Malachias, “the angel of the Lord.” S. Jerom always reads Malachi, “my angel.” Septuagint “his angel;” whence Origen infers, that this was an angel incarnate. Calmet.
When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).
“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD, “Yet I loved Jacob;
Verse 2. Loved us. So they thought, (Theod.) and perhaps spoke. Bible.—Jacob. I have preferred his posterity, to make them my chosen people, and to load them with my blessings, without any merit on their part, and though they have been always ungrateful; whilst I have rejected Esau, and executed severe judgments upon his posterity. Not that God punished Esau or his posterity beyond their deserts, but that by his free election and grace he loved Jacob, and favoured his posterity above their deserts. See the annotations upon Romans 9. Challoner.—Neither deserved any thing. God’s choice was gratuitous, both with respect to the fathers and their offspring. Worthington.
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”
Verse 3. Esau, perceiving the evil which was already in him, and would appear afterwards; (Saint Jerome and Theod.) or rather he was a figure of the reprobate, though not of course one himself. Saint Augustine—A person is said to hate what he loves less. Esau’s privileges were transferred to his brother, who enjoyed a much finer country, and was chosen for God’s peculiar inheritance. Calmet.—Temporal blessings are here specified.—Dragons. Septuagint “houses;” so that they shall be deserted. Bible.—Edom was ravaged by Nabuchodonosor. The people retired into the cities, from which the Jews were driven. Yet afterwards they rebuilt their own habitations.
Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” the LORD of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever.”
Verse 4. Down, by the Machabees, who forced the people to receive circumcision. 1 Maccabees 5:3. Calmet.—At that time the Jews were more pious, and glorified God. Bible.—Ever. God’s gratuitous love appears in his leaving Edom in captivity, and restoring the Jews. Worthington.
Your eyes will see, and you will say, “The LORD is great—even beyond the border of Israel!”
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD of Armies to you priests who despise my name. “You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Verse 6. Father. God sometimes took this title. Exodus 4:31. But he was oftener represented as a master; and the old law was a law of fear. Calmet.—Servant et mertuunt jus. Juv. xiv.
You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘The LORD’s table is contemptible.’
Verse 7. Bread, including all the victims, and so forth Leviticus 3:11. Numbers 28:2. Calmet.—By vile presents they shew their contempt of God. Worthington.
When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says the LORD of Armies.
Verse 8. Lame. The victims must be without defect. Leviticus 22:21. Those of the Jews were also rendered inadmissible by their evil dispositions. Agg. 2:14. It is surprising, that after such scourges they should not have been more upon their guard. The negligence of the sacred ministers, is a sure sign of faith being extinct. Calmet.—Pagans often thus treated thier idols. Clem. Strom. vi.—Prince: the governor sent by the Persians. If you dare not make such presents to men of eminence, how shall I accept them? Calmet.—How dare you offer them to me? Worthington.
“Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says the LORD of Armies.
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
Verse 10. Gratis? Are you not well paid? Why then perform you not your duty exactly? Calmet.—Septuagint “Wherefore also among you shall the doors be shut, and my altar is not enkindled for nought,” ( Bible.) as if God menaced the Jews with the rejection of the temple, as the sequel does. Calmet.—Pleasure. Many other prophets had foretold the reprobation of the synagogue, but none more plainly. The reason is also assigned, that is the ingratitude and repeated sins of the people, on which account the Gentiles of all countries shall be chosen. Worthington.
For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD of Armies.
Verse 11. Sacrifice. Prot. “incense.” Bible.—Clean oblation. The precious body and blood of Christ in the eucharistic sacrifice. Challoner.—This is denoted by the very word mincha, the offering of flour and wine. Calmet. See S. Just. dial. S. Iræn. iv. 32. Saint Augustine de Civ. Dei. xviii. 35.—“We pollute this bread, that is the body of Christ, when we approach the altar unworthily.” Saint Jerome verse 7.—This sacrifice is clean. Trid. xxii. Calmet. i. Menochius.—It is offered daily throughout the world. The Jews see the completion of this prediction, and are vexed; they strive to elude its force. Though enemies, they bear about these proofs of our faith, and of their own condemnation. Calmet.—God not only changed his people, but instituted a better sacrifice. Instead of the former needy elements, (Galatians 4) which were often defiled by the sins of the offerers, He instituted the sacrifice of his own Body and Blood, under the appearance of bread and wine, as Saint John Chrysostom (in Psalms 95.) Theod. and so forth prove against all opponents. A sacrifice different from any offered as many have demonstrated. Worthington.—Christ’s bloody sacrifice on the cross was performed on Calvary, and not among the Gentiles. What sacrifice can Protestants now produce? Bible.
“But you profane it when you say, ‘The LORD’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’
Verse 12. It. The priests complain that ll is burnt, (Grot.) or rather they treat sacred things with contempt. Calmet.—They falsely pretend that they give their best, being poor. Menochius.
You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says the LORD of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says the LORD.
Verse 13. Behold of our labour, and so forth You pretended labour and weariness, when you brought your offering; and so made it of no value, by offering it with an evil mind. Moreover, what you offered was both defective in itself, and gotten by rapine and extortion. Challoner.—These were two defects. Worthington.—Hebrew “what fatigue, or if we change one letter, and read ( Calmet.) mothlaé, ( Bible.) it stinks, and you.” and so forth Some copies of Septuagint Arab. and so forth “I blew them away,” with disgust.—Rapine. Sirach 34:24.—Offering. Mincha, verse 11. Calmet.—Such victims and presents as are lame or strange, are rejected. Pliny viii. 45.
“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
“But the deceiver is cursed who has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says the LORD of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
Verse 14. Male. So better things are styled mascula thura. Virg. Pliny xii. 14.—It was unlawful to offer a female by vow, but not out of devotion. Leviticus 22:18. 23. Calmet.—King. So the Persian monarchs were called.—Dreadful. Greek “Epiphanes.” Bible.
The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”