This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.
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“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says Yahweh of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. “My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies. But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. Yahweh will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies. This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful. You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
Parallel Translations
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This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand.
Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.
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And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
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And this further ye do: ye cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that He regardeth not the offering any more, neither receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Yet ye say: 'Wherefore?' Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
And not one hath done so who had exuberance of spirit! For what seeketh the one? a seed given of God. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For I hate putting away, saith the LORD, the God of Israel, and him that covereth his garment with violence, saith the LORD of hosts; therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Cross-references (73)
- Matthew 19:3-9 (v16) Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” He answered, “Haven’t you read…
- Malachi 2:15 (v14) Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit,…
- Matthew 19:4-6 (v15) He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall…
- Malachi 2:14 (v15) Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously,…
- Mark 10:6-8 (v15) But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join…
Show all 73 cross-references
- Matthew 5:31-32 (v16) “It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’ but I tell you that whoever puts away his…
- Mark 10:2-12 (v16) Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered, “What did Moses command you?”…
- Genesis 1:27 (v15) God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
- Genesis 2:20-24 (v15) The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a…
- Ecclesiastes 9:9 (v14) Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of…
- Isaiah 54:6 (v14) For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.
- Luke 16:18 (v16) Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
- Genesis 31:50 (v14) If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and…
- Proverbs 2:17 (v14) who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;
- Proverbs 28:13 (v16) He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- Jeremiah 8:12 (v14) Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They couldn’t blush. Therefore they will fall…
- Jeremiah 42:5 (v14) Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which Yahweh…
- Malachi 3:5 (v14) I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the…
- 1 Timothy 3:11-12 (v15) Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. Let servants be husbands of one wife,…
- Proverbs 5:18-19 (v14) Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times.…
- Proverbs 30:20 (v14) “So is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
- Isaiah 1:11-15 (v13) “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed…
- Ezekiel 16:8 (v14) “ ‘ “Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your…
- Micah 1:2 (v14) Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his…
- Malachi 1:6-7 (v14) “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…
- 1 Corinthians 7:14 (v15) For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would…
- 2 Corinthians 6:18 (v15) I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
- Genesis 2:18 (v14) Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
- Deuteronomy 24:1-4 (v16) When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in…
- 1 Samuel 12:5 (v14) He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They…
- Job 27:3 (v15) (for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
- Song of Solomon 1:15 (v14) Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves.
- Isaiah 50:1 (v16) Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you?…
- Isaiah 59:6 (v16) Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are…
- Hosea 1:10 (v15) Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that,…
- Micah 7:2-3 (v16) The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his…
- 1 Timothy 3:4-5 (v15) one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; (but how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule…
- Titus 1:6 (v15) if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior.
- Genesis 6:2 (v15) God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
- Genesis 24:3-7 (v15) I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of…
- Genesis 28:2-4 (v15) Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s…
- Deuteronomy 7:4 (v15) For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and…
- Judges 11:10 (v14) The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
- Psalms 78:34-37 (v13) When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the…
- Proverbs 6:25 (v15) Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
- Proverbs 7:25 (v15) Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,
- Isaiah 58:3 (v14) ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast…
- Jeremiah 2:21 (v15) Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
- Jeremiah 14:12 (v13) When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume…
- Matthew 5:28-29 (v15) but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye…
- Matthew 15:19 (v15) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Ephesians 6:4 (v15) You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- James 1:14-15 (v15) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when…
- Genesis 2:7 (v15) Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Genesis 24:44 (v15) then she tells me, “Drink, and I will also draw for your camels,”—let her be the woman whom Yahweh has appointed for my master’s son.’
- Genesis 26:34-35 (v15) When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.…
- Genesis 27:46 (v15) Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as…
- Deuteronomy 15:9 (v13) Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil…
- Deuteronomy 26:14 (v13) I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened…
- 1 Samuel 1:9-10 (v13) So Hannah rose up after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of…
- 2 Samuel 13:19-20 (v13) Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way,…
- Ezra 9:4 (v15) Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel were assembled to me, because of their trespass of the captivity; and I sat…
- Nehemiah 8:9-12 (v13) Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, “Today is…
- Nehemiah 13:24 (v15) and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each…
- Proverbs 4:23 (v15) Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Proverbs 15:8 (v13) The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 (v13) Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no…
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 (v15) and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Jeremiah 6:20 (v13) To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,…
- John 20:22 (v15) When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!
- Acts 3:25 (v15) You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘All the families of the…
- 1 Corinthians 7:2 (v15) But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
- Proverbs 21:27 (v13) The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13–16 The Prophet amplifies again the fault of the priests,…
The Prophet amplifies again the fault of the priests, because the people, when they perceived that God was adverse to them, found no means of pacifying him. And when men have an idea that God is inexorable to them, every zeal for religion must necessarily decay; and hence it is said in Psalm 130:4 — “With thee is propitiation, that thou mayest be feared.” As the people then gained nothing by sacrificing, they had now nearly fallen off from divine worship. This evil, a most grievous one, the Prophet says, was to be justly ascribed to the priests; for as they were become polluted, how could their persons have been accepted by God, that they might be mediators to expiate sins and to pacify God?
This is the real meaning of the Prophet, which none of the interpreters have perceived. The Rabbins think that the priests are here reproved, because their wives filled the altar in the sanctuary with weeping, because they saw that their husbands did not faithfully treat them, according to the law of marriage; and almost all have agreed with them. Thus then they explain the verse — Ye have in the second place done this; that is, “That sin was of itself sufficiently grievous, when ye suffered lean victims to be sacrificed to me, as it were in mockery; but in addition to this comes your sin against your wives, who continually complain and deplore their condition before the altar of God, even because they are not loved by you, as the right of marriage requires.” They thus refer the tears, the weeping, and lamentation, to the wives of the priests, which were so cruelly treated by their husbands: they were not able to do anything else than to fill God’s sanctuary with their constant complaints. Hence they render, מאין עוד פנות, main oud penut, “I will not therefore regard,” or, “no one regards;” but both versions are not only obscure, but wholly pervert the sense of the Prophet.
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But what I have already stated is the most suitable — that it was to be ascribed to the priests that no one could from the heart worship God, at least with a cheerful and willing mind; for God was implacable to the people, because the only way of obtaining favor under the law was when the priests, who represented the Mediator, humbly entreated pardon in the name of the whole people. But how could God attend to the prayers of the priests when they had polluted his altar by the filth of wickedness? We then see the object of this amplification — Ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and wailing. The praises of God ought to have resounded in the temple, according to what is said —
“Praise, O God, waits for thee in Zion.” (Psalm 65:1.)
And the principal sacrifice was, that the people exercised themselves in contemplating the blessings of God, and in thanksgiving. But he says that none went forth before the altar with a cheerful mind, but all were sad and sorrowful, because they found that God was severe and rigid.
And the reason is added — מאין עוד פנות, main oud penut, literally, “Is it not any more by regarding,” etc.? It is easy to see how far they depart from the meaning of the Prophet who read — “They shall therefore offer no more;” for is this to be applied to God? Others also, who give this rendering — “I shall not therefore accept,” pervert also the very letter of the text. But the most appropriate meaning is this — that all wept and groaned before the altar, because they saw that they came there without any advantage, that their sacrifices did not please God, and that the whole worship was in vain, inasmuch as God did not answer their prayers. The Prophet ascribes the fault to the priests, that God did not turn to mercy, so as to forgive the people when they sacrificed. With weeping, then, he says, was the altar filled or covered, because God received not what pleased him from their hand; that is, because no victims pleased him which were offered by polluted and impure hands. He afterwards joins
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Yet cause the people to lament, because that God…
Yet cause the people to lament, because that God doth not regard their sacrifices, so that they seem to sacrifice in vain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Mal 2:13 And this have ye done again, covering…
Mal 2:13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth [it] with good will at your hand.
Ver. 13. And this have ye done again] Or, in the second place: q.d. Not content to have married strange wives, ye have brought them in to your lawful wives, to their intolerable vexation; so adding this sin to the former, as a greater to the less. This is still the guise of graceless men, to add drunkenness to thirst, rebellion to sin, to amass and heap up one evil upon another, till wrath come upon them to the utmost. "For three transgressions, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment," Amo 1:3; that is, so long as the wicked commit one or two iniquities, I forbear them; but when it comes once to threes and fours (how much more to so many scores, hundreds, thousands, as one cipher added to a figure makes it so many tens, two so many hundreds, three so many thousands, &c.), God will bear with them no longer. Of those old Israelites it is demanded, not without great indignation on God’s part, "How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert? Yea, they turned back and tempted God," &c. Psa 78:40-41. Good men, if they fall once into foul practices, they fall not often. Of Judah it is expressly recorded that he knew Tamar no more. Lot indeed committed incest two nights together; but the orifice of his lust was not yet stopped by repentance. Think the same of Solomon, Samson, Jonah, &c., their acts were, as it were, continued acts; and, in the interim, little or no remorse or regret. Let us that have received mercy be admonished to sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto us, Joh 5:14. There is a woe to such as draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope, Isa 5:18. Babylon’s sins in the Revelation reached up to heaven, or they were thwacked together thick and threefold one upon another, Rev 18:5, there was a concatenation or a continued series of them; therefore she fell surely and suddenly. When wickedness is once ripe in the field God will not let it shed to grow again; but cuts it up by a just and seasonable vengeance.
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Covering the altar of the Lord with tears] That is, You caused your poor wives, when they should have been cheerful in God’s service, as 1Sa 1:10, and in many other places it was required of the Israelites to rejoice whensoever they appeared before the Lord. Earthly princes love not the company of mourners, Est 4:4, to cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, to throw themselves, blubbered and swollen with tears, upon the altar, which was a profanation of it; so that God regarded not the offering any more. It were happy if we could be so affected with our unkindness to Christ, our Husband, that we could cover his table, when we come to it, with our tears. How should the Lord regard our service so much the more! how should it be unto him as music upon the waters, far more harmonious! What a gracious respect had he to the weeping women that followed him to the cross! and what an honour was that to one of them (Mary Magdalene, I mean) that she had the first sight of the revived Phoenix, whom she held fast by those feet that she had once washed with her tears, and that had now lately trod upon the lion and adder Psa 91:13. It was appointed by Moses’ law that the bondwoman should bewail her father and mother a full month before she might become an Israelite’s wife, Deu 21:13. We, that are strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, as we cannot be presented a chaste virgin to Christ, but as weeping over him that bled over us, so we never please him better than when we weep over our tears ( Ipsae lachrymae sunt lachrymabiles), sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs, as not proportionable to our miscarriages. But to return to the text; the Jews, as they are noted for a nation overmuch effeminate, and given to women, as they say, so, when they have satisfied their lust, and served their own turns, they are as willing to be rid of them as Amnon was of Tamar. Hence those many cautions in the law to put bounds to their petulance; and that political permission of a divorce, for the relief of the poor despised woman, lest she should come to a mischief, by the hatred of the churl her husband, Deu 22:18; Deu 22:14; Deu 24:3. At this day they look upon women as not having so divine a soul as men, but are of a lower creation, made only for the propagation and pleasure of man. They use them as their drudges, lay upon them with their unmanly fists, are ready to cut out their tongues (as the Welshmen dealt by their French wives, lest they should corrupt the language of their children), put them away upon every slight occasion, covering that violence with the garment of the law, as Mal 2:16. Or if they kept them, they took other wives to them, to vex them, and to make them to fret, 1Sa 1:6, or (as the word there signifies) to thunder; not only tabering upon their breasts, with the voice of doves (as Nahum’s expression is, Nah 2:7), but filling the air, yea, covering the altar (as it is here) with their laments and lowings, flectu et mugitu (so the Vulgate rendereth), for their husbands’ harshness, and their concubines’ insolencies and indignities: Lamentis gemituque et foemineo ululatu Tecta fremunt (Virg. Aeneid). Jerome tells us that these returned captives slighted their old wives brought with them from Babylon (as being by that tedious journey become infirm and deformed), and matched with strangers, who were fresh, fair, rich, &c.; this he gathers out of Ezr 9:1-15; Ezr 10:1-44, whereas they should rather have nourished and cherished them as their own flesh, Eph 5:29, they should have handled them gently, because of their weakness, as so many crystal glasses. They should have given them all lawful content, as Abraham did Sarah, his faithful fellow traveller. They should have given all honour unto them, saith St Peter, 1Pe 3:7; and why? Mark his many reasons. 1. They are the weaker vessels, and are, therefore, to be handled with all tenderness. Some translate it the weaker instrument; and (as Luther speaks of it) as a knife with a tender edge men will not cut stones, brass, or iron with, so here. 2. They are heirs together of the grace of life, that is, of the life of grace, and of glory too; for souls have no sexes, and as every one is in Christ, all are equal, so that the husband is bound, in this respect, to make his wife’s yoke as easy as may be, since she draws even with him, though on the left side. 3. That your prayers be not hindered, as they will be, where there is not so much coniugium wedlock as coniurgium. quarrelling. How can they pray together comfortably that live so discontentedly? How can they bring their gift to that altar that is covered with the tears and moans of their justly aggrieved and abused wives? Or, if they do, will God regard their offering any more, or receive it with good will at their hands? Will not the tears and groans of their distressed wives (who yet hold out their devotion, and will not be hindered by their just grief from praying to God and pouring out their souls before him) move God more than their sacrifices can do? Especially if they bring them with a wicked mind, as Solomon hath it, Pro 21:27; and as Lyra maketh it to be the sense of this text; Ye have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, &c., but he regardeth not the offering any more, &c., that is (saith Lyra, and he hath it from Chrysostom), you are resolved to retain your idolatrous wives, though God have declared against it; and that ye may expiate this wickedness, and make amends by your good deeds for your bad, you run to the temple, and there, with many tears and groans, you beg pardon. But all in vain, because you have no purpose at all to break off your sins, but will needs persist in your unlawful marriages. {See Trapp on "Mal 3:16"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–16 This have ye done again; beside that first fault,…
This have ye done again; beside that first fault, you have committed another, you slight, misuse, and afflict your Jewish wives, whom alone you should have loved and cherished, but you make them drudges and slaves to idolatresses, your new and illegal wives.
Covering the altar of the Lord with tears; your despised and misused wives flee to the temple, weep, and cry out unto God for redress of their injuries.
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With weeping: this is added to show the abundance of their tears.
With crying out; with vehemency crying to God against such husbands.
Insomuch that he, the Lord, who seeth their tears and heareth their cries,
regardeth not the offering any more; valueth not such offerings made to him by such people and such priests; or receiveth it with good will at your hand; is not at all pleased with such offerings, whether expiatory or peace-offerings, none of them from such people shall ever avail them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–16 And this have ye done again,.... Or "in the…
And this have ye done again,.... Or "in the second" (b) place; to their rejection and ill treatment of Christ they added their hypocritical prayers and tears, as follows:
covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping, and with crying out; for the Messiah they vainly expect, pretending great humiliation for their sins: though some, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra, make the first evil to be their offering illegal sacrifices on the altar, complained of in the former chapter Mal 1:1; and this second, their marrying strange wives, on account of which their lawful wives came into the house of God, and wept over the altar before the Lord, complaining of the injury that was done them:
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insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand; which expresses an utter rejection and abrogation of legal sacrifices; and which some make to be the reason of their covering the altar with tears and weeping: or the altar is represented as weeping, because sacrifice is no more offered upon it; see Dan 9:27.
(b) "secundo", Pagninus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Burkius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13–16 And this - Beside that first fault, you have…
And this - Beside that first fault, you have committed another, you misuse, and afflict your Jewish wives, whom alone you should have cherished. With tears - Your despised wives fly to the temple, weep and cry to God for redress. With weeping - This is added to shew the abundance of their tears. He - The Lord.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Verse 13. Covering the altar of the Lord with…
Verse 13. Covering the altar of the Lord with tears] Of the poor women who, being divorced by cruel husbands, come to the priests, and make an appeal to God at the altar; and ye do not speak against this glaring injustice.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 Mal 2:14-15. Yet ye say, Wherefore — Ye will,…
Mal 2:14-15. Yet ye say, Wherefore — Ye will, perhaps, still inquire wherefore God regards not your offerings; if so, the answer is ready, namely, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth — Because the Lord sees how you act toward your wives; that when you have enjoyed the flower of their youth, and they begin to grow old, you contemn them, and use them ill. Yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant — Yet didst thou thyself make choice of her to be thy companion through life; and didst enter into covenant or contract with her, to live with her in true love and affection. And did not he make one, &c. — “Among various interpretations of the words,” says Lowth, “this seems the most probable, that the prophet puts the Jews in mind of the first institution of marriage in paradise, (as Christ did afterward upon a like occasion, Mat 19:5,) and tells them God made but one man at first, and made the woman out of him, when he could have created more women if he had pleased; to instruct men that this was the true pattern of marriage, ordained for true love and undivided affection, and best serving the chief end of matrimony, namely, the religious education of children, whereas in polygamy, the children are brought up with more or less care in proportion to the affection men bear to their wives.” Therefore take heed to your spirit — Do not give way to an inordinate and irregular passion.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–16 And this ye have done again - , adding…
And this ye have done again - , adding the second sin of cruelty to their wives to the taking foreign women; “they covered the altar of God with tears,” in that they by ill-treatment occasioned their wives to weep there to God; and God regarded this, as though they had stained the altar with their tears.
Insomuch that He regardeth not the offering anymore - God regarded the tears of the oppressed, not the sacrifices of the oppressors. He would not accept what was thus offered Him as a thing well-pleasing to Him, acceptable to win His good pleasure.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13–16 With tears; viz., by occasion of your wives, whom…
With tears; viz., by occasion of your wives, whom you have put away, and who came to weep and lament before the altar. (Challoner) --- Though divorces were tolerated, (Matthew xix. 6.) the more virtuous did not approve of them, particularly when a wife is put away who had been married in youth. See ver. 10. Perhaps this corruption had crept in, like others, (Calmet) owing to the people’s commerce with strangers. (Diodorus in Photius.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–16 done again--"a second time": an aggravation of your offense…
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].
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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14–15 14. Wherefore — Wherefore does Jehovah pay no attention…
14. Wherefore — Wherefore does Jehovah pay no attention to them? This cry gives the prophet an opportunity to present the accusation.
Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth — Of the marriage as well as of the wicked putting away, and as a righteous God he must avenge the wrong; he cannot look with favor upon a hypocrite (Gen_31:50; compare Isa_54:6).
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Dealt treacherously — In putting her aside when he should have loved her faithfully.
Thy companion — In joy and sorrow. This companionship should have united them more closely.
The wife of thy covenant — Not the marriage covenant, but the covenant with Jehovah (Mal_2:10). In contrast to “the daughter of the strange god” (Mal_2:11), the wife belonging to the religious community of Jehovah. To cast off such a one is a desecration of the covenant (Mal_2:10).
The translation and interpretation of 15a are matters of dispute; indeed, it is very doubtful if, without deep-going emendations, an entirely satisfactory sense can be had; but who can be certain that the “emended” text represents the thought of the prophet? Two interpretations of the text as it stands may be given. The one is that of Pusey, who follows closely the translation of A.V.
Did not he — God.
Make one — Adam. “In order to designate the unity of marriage, he willed to create but one.”
Yet had he the residue of the spirit — The breath of life by which man became a living soul (Gen_2:7); this God possessed in an abundant measure, so that, had he desired, he might have created any number of men or women, but he deliberately chose the other way.
Wherefore one? — Wherefore did God create one man, and did create from him a mate, the two to be one, never to be put asunder? The answer is supplied by the succeeding clause.
That he might seek a godly seed — A seed worthy of God. Only in the manner selected could he accomplish this purpose. 15b is an exhortation to the prophet’s contemporaries. These things being so, they would better be careful about their conduct. Embodying this interpretation, Perowne gives the following translation of 15a: “Did not he (God) make one (one man, and out of him one woman, and the twain ‘one flesh’)? And (yet) the residue of the spirit (of life) was his (so that he could, had it pleased him, have created, for example, one man and many women). And why (did he make) the one? He sought (what only by the purity and integrity of the marriage bond can be secured) a godly seed.” Much, indeed, has to be read between the lines, but when all that is placed in parenthesis is read in or gathered from the text, the result is not inappropriate. But is it the thought Malachi desired to express? He certainly might have expressed it with less obscurity.
Most scholars who retain the present text prefer an entirely different translation and interpretation. In part this translation is given in margin R.V.; for the whole of 15a that of Von Orelli may be quoted: “And not one has done this, while yet a remnant of spirit was in him. And how (did) the one so? In seeking a seed of God.” 15b is again understood as an appeal to the prophet’s contemporaries. According to this translation the prophet means to contrast the conduct of his contemporaries with the actions of past generations, and he declares that no one who had even a remnant of reason or of sense for right and wrong had ever put away his wife in the manner in which they were doing it.
Spirit — A sense of right and wrong, the faculty that determines moral and religious actions. How did the one so? (see translation above) — These words must be understood either as an objection raised by some bystander, or by the prophet himself to forestall an objection by some one else. The one would be Abraham, who put away Hagar. If their conduct is so reprehensible in the sight of God, how did this friend of God come to put away one who had borne children to him? To this the prophet replies, he did so in order to raise up a godly seed. Had he retained Hagar and her child, the covenant seed might have become tainted and corrupt.
This translation reproduces the Hebrew more faithfully than the other, but again much has to be read between the lines. The construction is peculiar, and the one as a designation of Abraham, who has not yet been named, appears strange. Besides, the analogy breaks down, for Abraham did not put away the wife of his youth, Sarah, but Hagar, who had never been his legitimate wife. It is a very easy way out of the difficulty to say, “One feels the holy indignation under the power of which the prophet speaks in the style, which is abrupt and obscure.” The present writer, however, is inclined to think that the obscurity has arisen not so much from “holy indignation” as from a corruption of the text. Wellhausen rewrites the text, “Hath not one God (compare Mal_2:10) created and sustained our breath?
And what does he desire? A seed of God.” This gives good sense, for it furnishes two reasons why the hearers should abstain from their evil practices: (1) one God has created both husband and wife (see on Mal_2:10); (2) he desires a pure offspring, which can be had only if they retain their Jewish wives. But is it the original text?
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13. again] Lit. second. The first evil of marrying…
13. again] Lit. second. The first evil of marrying heathen women was accompanied by a second, the cruel treatment and divorce (“putting-away,” Mal_2:16) of their lawful wives, which is now dealt with, Mal_2:13-16.
covering the altar] The weeping crowd of insulted and divorced wives turn to God, as their only refuge, so that the courts of His Temple resound with their sad complaints, and His very altar, round which they gather, is bathed, as it were, with their tears.
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crying out] Rather, sighing, R.V., as the same word is rendered in Psa_79:11; or groaning, Psa_102:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–16 (13) The prophet now rebukes the people for their…
(13) The prophet now rebukes the people for their frivolous divorces of their first wives, which was a natural result of their marriage with heathen women.
And this . . . again.—Or perhaps, And this a second thing ye do—viz., infidelity to the wife of their youth (Mal_2:14). But the rendering of the English Version is in accordance with the Hebrew accentuation. That rendering is not improbably the right one. It would mean: “And this you do again (Nehemiah 13), even after Ezra has reformed the abuse, and you have solemnly undertaken not to act so again” (Neh_9:10).
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Covering the altar . . . with tears . . . and with crying out—i.e., with the plaints of the Israelitish women who were divorced against their will.
Insomuch that.—Or rather, so that.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Not only did they marry heathen females, but they…
Not only did they marry heathen females, but they divorced their own legitimate wives to facilitate such unholy alliances. This have ye done again; this again ye do. Here is another and a further offence. Others take "again" in the sense of "a second time," referring to the fact that Ezra had effected a reform in this matter, but the people had relapsed into the same sin. But the first explanation is preferable. Septuagint, kai tauta, aemisoun epoieite , "and this which I hated ye did." Covering (ye cover) the altar of the Lord with tears. The prophet, as before (ver. 10), does not at once declare what this fresh outrage is, but intimates its nature. The picture he exhibits is that of a multitude of repudiated wives coming to the temple with weeping and lamentation, and laying their cause before the Lord. Insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more. This cruel and wicked conduct raised a barrier between them and God, so that he regarded with favour no offering of theirs.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv13, 16 Between thee and the wife of thy youth.
Mal_2:13-15
Between thee and the wife of thy youth.
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Marriage
I. As a social compact. She is thy wife, here is the peculiarity of the relation. It is the fountain of humanity in its perpetuation, and the source of its purest affections, its dearest charities, and its richest enjoyments. It is a relation of choice, not of blood. Here is the mutual compact, with which, in the first instance, the two parties themselves have alone to do. It is a social compact, involving civil responsibilities. It is not enough that the individuals agree in the formation of this union; the magistracy of every state, watching over the weal of the whole, has a right to require a guarantee for the public, as well as for the parties. So far as society is concerned, and the public interest involved, marriage is exclusively a civil contract. All other relations arise out of this first alliance. This, being voluntary, and the root of all social ramifications, it becomes necessary that it should be formed with the greatest care, watched with the greatest circumspection, and secured by the most indestructible bond. She is thy companion. Here is the propriety and solace of the relation. One crime alone dissolves the marriage tie, but many offences may occur to render it sore bondage. Incompatibility of temper and of habits will not fail, first or last, in a greater or less degree, to introduce estrangement into the heart, and disorder into the family. As thy companion, let her be treated as an equal. She is so in moral, intellectual, and immortal constitution--a partaker of the same nature, a possessor of the same qualities, a recipient of the same salvation. Society depends upon the participation of a common nature and a community of interests.
II. As a religious institution. In view of the closeness of the union, the duties involved in it reciprocally, the inseparable connection of it with human happiness, such an alliance can acquire stability only from motives of a religious character, and from strength derived from spiritual aid. But God has laid down express laws for the regulation of the state thus entered upon, and watches over it to enforce those laws and to punish their violation. Consider the religious character of marriage--
1. In its formation.
2. In its design.
3. In its connection with the altar.
4. In its responsibilities.
5. In its duties.
6. In the typical use made of it. (W. B. Collyer, D. D.)
The Divine institution of marriage
1. It implies a loving union of two, and only two souls, until death.
2. It has been sadly outraged in all ages. Polygamy, cruelty, and mutual unfaithfulness are outrages on it.
3. The outrage of this institution is fraught with calamitous results. It is abhorrent to God. It involves violence. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v14 Mal 2:12, Mal 2:14.
Malachi
A DIALOGUE WITH GOD
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Mal 2:12, Mal 2:14.
It is obvious from the whole context that divorce and foreign inter-marriage were becoming increasingly prevalent in Malachi’s time. The conditions in these respects were nearly similar to that prevailing in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is these sins which the Prophet is here vehemently condemning, and for which he threatens to cut off the transgressors out of the tents of Jacob, and to regard no more their offerings and simulated worship. They might cover ‘the altar of the Lord with tears,’ but the sacrifice which they laid upon it was polluted by the sins of their daily domestic life, and therefore was not ‘regarded by Him any more.’ Malachi is true to the prophetic spirit when he denounces a religion which has the form of godliness without its power over the practical life. But his sharp accusations have their edge turned by the question, ‘Wherefore?’ which again calls out from the Prophet’s lips a more sharply-pointed accusation, and a solemner warning that none should ‘deal treacherously against the wife of his youth,’ ‘for I hate putting away, saith the Lord.’ We may dismiss any further reference to the circumstances of the text, and regard it as but one instance of man’s way of treating the voice of God when it warns of the consequences of the sin of man. Looked at from such a point of view the words of our text bring before us God’s merciful threatenings and man’s incredulous rejection of them.
I. God’s merciful threatenings.
The fact of sin affects God’s relation to and dealings with the sinner. It does not prevent the flowing forth of His love, which is not drawn out by anything in us, but wells up from the depths of His being, like the Jordan from its source at Dan, a broad stream gushing forth from the rock. But that love which is the outgoing of perfect moral purity must necessarily become perfect opposition to its own opposite in the sinfulness of man. The divine character is many-sided, and whilst ‘to the pure’ it ‘shows itself pure,’ it cannot but be that ‘to the froward’ it ‘will show itself froward.’ Man’s sin has for its most certain and dreadful consequence that, if we may so say, it forces God to present the stern side of His nature which hates evil. But not merely does sin thus modify the fact of the divine relation to men, but it throws men into opposition in which they can see only the darkness which dwells in the light of God. To the eye looking through a red tinted medium all things are red, and even the crystal sea before the throne is ‘a sea of glass mingled with fire.’
No sin can stay our reception of a multitude of good gifts appealing to our hearts and revealing the patient love of our Father in heaven, but every sin draws after it as certainly as the shadow follows the substance, evil consequences which work themselves out on the large scale in nations and communities, and in the smaller spheres of individual life. And surely it is the voice of love and not of anger that comes to warn us of the death which is the wages of sin. It is not God who has ordained that ‘the soul that sinneth it shall die,’ but it is God who tells us so. The train is rushing full steam ahead to the broken bridge, and will crash down the gulph and be huddled, a hideous ruin, on the rocks; surely it is care for life that holds out the red flag of danger, and surely God is not to be blamed if in spite of the flag full speed is kept up and the crash comes.
The miseries and sufferings which follow our sins are self-inflicted, and for the most part automatic. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that’-and not some other crop-’will he also reap.’ The wages of sin are paid in ready money; and it is as just to lay them at God’s door as it would be to charge Him with inflicting the disease which the dissolute man brings upon himself. It is no arbitrary appointment of God’s that ‘he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption’; nor is it His will acting as that of a jealous despot which makes it inevitably true that here and hereafter, ‘Every transgression and disobedience shall receive its just recompense of reward,’ and that to be parted from Him is death.
If then we rightly understand the connection between sin and suffering, and the fact that the sorrows which are but the echoes of preceding sins have all a distinctly moral and restorative purpose, we are prepared rightly to estimate how tenderly the God who warns us against our sins by what men call threatenings loves us while He speaks.
II. Man’s rejection of God’s merciful threatenings.
It is the great mystery and tragedy of life that men oppose themselves to God’s merciful warnings that all sin is a bitter, because it is an evil, thing. He has to lament, ‘I have smitten your children, and they have received no correction.’ The question ‘Wherefore?’ is asked in very various tones, but none of them has in it the accent of true conviction; and there is a whole world of difference between the lowly petition, ‘Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me,’ and the curt, self-complacent brushing aside of God’s merciful threatenings in the text. The last thing which most of us think of as the cause of our misfortunes is ourselves; and we resent as almost an insult the word, which if we were wise, we should welcome as the crowning proof of the seeking love of our Father in heaven. We are more obstinate and foolish than Balaam, who persisted in his purpose when the angel with the drawn sword in his hand would have barred his way, not to the tree of life, but to death. The awful mystery that a human will can, and the yet sadder mystery that it does, set itself against the divine, is never more unintelligible, never so stupid, and never so tragic as when God says, ‘Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?’ and we say, ‘Why need I die? I will not turn.’
The ‘Wherefore?’ of our text is widely asked in the present day as an expression of utter bewilderment at the miseries of humanity, both in the wide area of this disordered world and in the narrower field of individual lives. There are whole schools of so-called political and social thinkers who have yet to learn that the one thing which the world and the individual need is not a change of conditions or environment, but redemption from sin. Man’s sorrows are but a symptom of his disease, and he is no more to be healed by tinkering with these than a fever-stricken patient can be restored to health by treating the blotches on his skin which tell of the disease that courses through his veins.
But sometimes the question is more than an expression of bewilderment; it conceals an arraignment of God’s justice, or even a denial that there is a God at all. There are men among us who hesitate not to avow that the miseries of the world have rooted out of their minds a belief in Him; and who point to all the ills under which humanity staggers as conclusive against the ancient faith of a God of love. They, too, forget that that love is righteousness, and that if there be sin in the world and God above it, He must necessarily war against it and hate it.
Our right response to God’s merciful threatenings is to ask this question in the right spirit. We are not wise if we turn a deaf ear to His warnings, or go on in a headlong course which He by His providences declared to be dangerous and fatal. We use them as wise men should, only if our ‘Wherefore?’ is asked in order to learn our evil, and having learned it, to purge our bosoms of the perilous stuff by confession and to seek pardon and victory in Christ. Then we shall ‘know the secret of the Lord’ which is ‘with them that fear Him’; and the mysteries that still hang over our own histories and the world’s destiny will have shining down upon them the steadfast light of that love which seeks to make men blessed by making them good.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v15 Summary of the O.T. doctrine of the Holy Spirit:
spirit
Summary of the O.T. doctrine of the Holy Spirit:
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(1) The personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit appear from the attributes ascribed to Him, and from His works.
(2) He is revealed as sharing the work of creation and therefore omnipotent Gen 1:2; Job 26:13; Job 33:4; Psa 104:30 as omnipresent Psa 139:7 as striving with men Gen 6:3 as enlightening Job 32:8 enduing with constructive skill; Exo 28:3; Exo 31:3 giving physical strength Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:19 executive ability and wisdom; Jdg 3:10; Jdg 6:34; Jdg 11:29; Jdg 13:25 enabling men to receive and utter divine revelations; Num 11:25; 2Sa 23:2 and, generally, as empowering the servants of God; Psa 51:12; Joe 2:28; Mic 3:8; Zec 4:6
(3) He is called holy Psa 51:11 good Psa 143:10 the Spirit of judgment and burning Isa 4:4 of Jehovah, of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, good, knowledge, the fear of the Lord Isa 11:2 and of grace and supplications Zec 12:10.
(4) In the O.T. the Spirit acts in free sovereignty, coming upon men and even upon a dumb beast as He will, nor are the conditions set forth (as in the N.T.) by complying with which any one may receive the Spirit. The indwelling of every believer by the abiding Spirit is a N.T. blessing consequent upon the death and resurrection of Christ Joh 7:39; Joh 16:7; Act 2:33; Gal 3:1-6.
(5) The O.T. contains prediction of a future pouring out of the Spirit upon Israel Exo 37:14; Exo 39:29 and upon "all flesh" Joe 2:28; Joe 2:29. The expectation of Israel, therefore, was twofold--of the coming of Messiah-Immanuel, and of such an effusion of the Spirit as the prophets described. See Mat 1:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13–14 General Information:
General Information:
Malachi continues to speak to his fellow Israelites.
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You cover the altar of Yahweh with tears
This sarcastically exaggerates the amount of tears the people cry to show that Yahweh knows that the people do not really feel sad. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization and Irony)
with weeping and sighing
The words "weeping" and "sighing" share similar meanings and intensify the idea of weeping. AT: "with great weeping" (See: Doublet)
does not turn toward the offering
Here turning toward a gift stands for receiving it and showing favor to the giver. (See: Metonymy)
does not turn toward the offering
This implies that those who are weeping at Yahweh's altar have offered sacrifices to him. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
from your hand
Here "hand" stands for the person giving the offering. AT: "from you" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
altar
favor
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16 2:14 The expression faithful partner identifies a marriage companion…
2:14 The expression faithful partner identifies a marriage companion (Greek Old Testament koinōnos, “joint partner”). The Hebrew word, used for a seam or a joint in construction (e.g., Exod 26:6-11), suggests a permanent bond. • marriage vows (literally covenant): Marriage is a solemn covenant to which God is witness (see Prov 2:17).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.