1A nyní o vás kněžích je tento příkaz: 2Jestliže neposlechnete a nevezmete si k srdci, abyste vzdávali slávu mému jménu, praví Hospodin zástupů, pošlu na vás kletbu a vaše požehnání změním v kletbu. Ano, již jsem ho změnil v kletbu, protože si to neberete k srdci. 3Hle, okřiknu vaše potomstvo, rozmetám výměty na vaši tvář, výměty z vašich svátečních obětí, a odstraní vás spolu s nimi. 4I poznáte, že jsem vám poslal tento příkaz, aby byla upevněna má smlouva s Lévim, praví Hospodin zástupů. 5Má smlouva s ním byla život a pokoj. Dal jsem mu je k bázni. Bál se mě a děsil se před mým jménem. 6Pravdivý zákon byl v jeho ústech, zvrácenost nebyla nalezena na jeho rtech, v pokoji a podle práva chodil se mnou a mnohé odvrátil od provinění. 7Neboť rty kněze uchovávají poznání a z jeho úst se vyhledává poučení, neboť je poslem Hospodina zástupů. 8Vy jste se však odvrátili od cesty, mnohé jste poučením přivedli k pádu, zkazili jste lévijskou smlouvu, praví Hospodin zástupů. 9Také já jsem vás učinil opovrženými a poníženými před vším lidem, tak jako jste vy nezachovávali mé cesty a při poučení jste stranili lidem. 10Což nemáme všichni jednoho otce? Cožpak nás nestvořil jeden Bůh? Proč jednáme věrolomně jeden vůči druhému a znesvěcujeme smlouvu svých otců? 11Juda byl nevěrný, ohavnost se páchala v Izraeli i v Jeruzalémě, neboť Juda znesvětil Hospodinovu svatyni, kterou on miluje, když se oženil s dcerou cizího boha. 12Hospodin ať vyhladí ze stanů Jákobových každého, kdo to páchá, toho, kdo bdí, a toho, kdo odpovídá, i toho, kdo přináší přídavnou oběť Hospodinu zástupů. 13A ještě toto činíte: Zakrýváte Hospodinův oltář slzami, pláčem a nářkem, zatímco on již nehledí na přídavnou oběť, nepřijme ji od vás se zalíbením. 14A ptáte se: Proč? Protože Hospodin je svědkem mezi tebou a ženou tvého mládí, vůči níž jsi byl nevěrný, ačkoliv ona je tvou družkou, ženou tvé smlouvy. 15Ten, kdo má ostatek ducha, to nebude dělat. A co udělal ten jeden, když hledal potomka od Boha? Mějte se na pozoru ve svém duchu, vůči ženě svého mládí ať není nikdo nevěrný. 16Neboť nenávidím propuštění, praví Hospodin, Bůh Izraele, a toho, kdo přikrývá násilí na svém oděvu, praví Hospodin zástupů. Mějte se na pozoru ve svém duchu a nebuďte nevěrní. 17Unavujete Hospodina svými slovy. Ptáte se: Čím ho unavujeme? Tím, že říkáte: Každý, kdo páchá zlo, je dobrý v Hospodinových očích, v takových on má zalíbení, anebo: Kde je spravedlivý Bůh?
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 REPROOF OF THE PRIESTS FOR VIOLATING THE COVENANT; AND THE PEOPLE ALSO FOR MIXED MARRIAGES AND UNFAITHFULNESS. (Mal. 2:1-17)
for 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].
2 lay . . . to heart--My commands.
send a curse--rather, as Hebrew, "the curse"; namely, that denounced in
Втор 27:15-
Втор 27:26; Deu. 28:15-68.
curse your blessings--turn the blessings you enjoy into curses (
Псал 106:15).
cursed them--Hebrew, them severally; that is, I have cursed each one of your blessings.
3 corrupt, &c.--literally, "rebuke," answering to the opposite prophecy of blessing (
Мал 3:11), "I will rebuke the devourer." To rebuke the seed is to forbid its growing.
your--literally, "for you"; that is, to your hurt.
dung of . . . solemn feasts--The dung in the maw of the victims sacrificed on the feast days; the maw was the perquisite of the priests (
Втор 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.
one 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 (
3Цар 14:10; compare
Иер 16:4;
Иер 22:19).
4 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
Мал 2:5-
Мал 2:6). Malachi's function was that of a reformer, leading back the priests and people to the law (
Мал 4:4).
5 He describes the promises, and also the conditions of the covenant; Levi's observance of the conditions and reward (compare
Чис 25:11-
Чис 25:13, 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
Чис 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 (
Втор 33:8-
Втор 33:9). 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 (
Псал 19:11).
6 law of truth was in his mouth--He taught the people the truths of the law in all its fulness (
Втор 33:10). The priest was the ordinary expounder of the law; the prophets were so only on special occasions.
iniquity . . . not found--no injustice in his judicial functions (
Втор 17:8-
Втор 17:9;
Втор 19:17).
walked with me--by faith and obedience (
Быт 5:22).
in peace--namely, the "peace" which was the fruit of obeying the covenant (
Мал 2:5). Peace with God, man, and one's own conscience, is the result of "walking with God" (compare
Иов 22:21;
Ис 27:5;
Иак 3:18).
turn may . . . from iniquity--both by positive precept and by tacit example "walking with God" (
Иер 23:22;
Дан 12:3;
Иак 5:20).
7 In doing so (
Мал 2:6) he did his duty as a priest, "for," &c.
knowledge--of the law, its doctrines, and positive and negative precepts (
Лев 10:10-
Лев 10:11;
Втор 24:8;
Иер 18:18;
Агг 2:11).
the law--that is, its true sense.
messenger of . . . Lord--the interpreter of His will; compare as to the prophets,
Агг 1:13. So ministers are called "ambassadors of Christ" (
2Кор 5:20); and the bishops of the seven churches in Revelation, "angels" or messengers (
Откр 2:1,
Откр 2:8,
Откр 2:12,
Откр 2:18;
Откр 3:1,
Откр 3:7,
Откр 3:14; compare
Гал 4:14).
8 out of the way--that is, from the covenant.
caused many to stumble--By scandalous example, the worse inasmuch as the people look up to you as ministers of religion (
1Цар 2:17;
Иер 18:15;
Мф 18:6;
Лк 17:1).
at the law--that is, in respect to the observances of the law.
corrupted . . . covenant--made it of none effect, by not fulfilling its conditions, and so forfeiting its promises (
Зах 11:10;
Неем 13:29).
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 (
Лев 19:15).
10 Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and repudiated their Jewish wives.
Have 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,
1Фес 4:3-6 and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare
Мал 2:14 and
Мал 2:11;
Езд 9:1-
Езд 9:9), 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 (
Исх 19:5;
Лев 20:24,
Лев 20:26;
Втор 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 (
Иов 31:15;
1Кор 8:6;
Еф 4:6). "Created us": not merely physical creation, but "created us" to be His peculiar and chosen people (
Псал 102:18;
Ис 43:1;
Ис 45:8;
Ис 60:21;
Еф 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!
11 dealt treacherously--namely, in respect to the Jewish wives who were put away (
Мал 2:14; also
Мал 2:10,
Мал 2:15-
Мал 2:16).
profaned 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" (
Езд 9:2; compare
Иер 2:3). Or, "the holiness of the Lord" means His holy ordinance and covenant (
Втор 7:3). But "which He loved," seems to refer to the holy people, Israel, whom God so gratuitously loved (
Мал 1:2), without merit on their part (
Псал 47:4).
married, &c.-- (
Езд 9:1-
Езд 9:2;
Езд 10:2;
Неем 13:23, &c.).
daughter of a strange god--women worshipping idols: as the worshipper in Scripture is regarded in the relation of a child to a father (
Иер 2:27).
12 master and . . . scholar--literally, "him that watcheth and him that answereth." So "wakeneth" is used of the teacher or "master" (
Ис 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 (
Лк 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 (
Псал 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.
him 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.
13 done again--"a second time": an aggravation of your offense (
Неем 13:23-
Неем 13:31), in that it is a relapse into the sin already checked once under Ezra (
Езд 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].
covering . . . 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.
14 Wherefore?--Why does God reject our offerings?
Lord . . . witness between thee and . . . wife--(so
Быт 31:49-
Быт 31:50).
of thy youth--The Jews still marry very young, the husband often being but thirteen years of age, the wife younger (
Прит 5:18;
Ис 54:6).
wife 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" (
Прит 2:17), and to it the reference may be (
Быт 2:24;
Мф 19:6;
1Кор 7:10).
15 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
Мал 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 (
Быт 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
Мал 2:10. One object of the marriage relation is to raise a seed for God and for eternity.
16 putting away--that is, divorce.
for one covereth violence with . . . garment--MAURER translates, "And (Jehovah hateth him who) covereth his garment (that is, his wife, in Arabic idiom; compare
Быт 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
Втор 22:30;
Руф 3:9;
Иез 16:8) with injury." The Hebrew favors "garment," being accusative of the thing covered. Compare with English Version,
Псал 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 (
Втор 24:1; compare
Мф 19:6-
Мф 19:9).
17 wearied . . . Lord-- (
Ис 43:24). This verse forms the transition to
Мал 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 (
Мал 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 (
Амос 5:18-
Амос 5:20). 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 (
2Пет 3:3-4). Then, too, they shall affect to seek His coming, while really denying it (
Ис 5:19;
Иер 17:15;
Иез 12:22,
Иез 12:27).