MALACHI THE ARGUMENT Concerning this prophet, some have thought (but without good and sufficient ground) that he was an angel in the form of a man; others think him to be Ezra; but as it is the plainer, so the surer, opinion that he was a prophet of that name, and a man distinct from Ezra, and sent…

The burden: see Zech. 9:1, Nah. 1:1. Usually it imports sad threats against those concerned in it, though sometimes it may be no more than the message of God. Of the word of the Lord: the authority was Divine on which this prophet spake.

I have loved you: God asserts his ancient love, that which he had in many generations past showed: I have, time out of mind, yea, from before the birth of your father Jacob, and in truth before Abraham was, designed more kindness to you than to others, and from the time of Jacob I have undeniably…

I hated; I loved not Esau or his posterity as I loved Jacob and his posterity: this not loving, comparatively, is a hating, God showed not the same kindness to the twin brothers; the one was more enriched with the fruits of God’s love, and had cause to be thankful; the other had no cause to…

We are impoverished: here the prophet introduceth Edom reflecting on its present low condition, and taking up resolutions of bettering their condition: We are now, as the Jews were five years before, exceedingly spoiled by Nebuchadnezzar, who hath rifled our houses, burnt our cities, and captivated…

You Jews who are now returned from captivity, and are blest with a rebuilt temple and city, who are settled in civil and sacred concerns, your eyes shall see; some of you must needs, more will, and all might, observe what I have said, that my love is toward you, whom I plant, build up, and prosper,…

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: this is a practical principle engraven on the hearts of mankind, a law which all own, a truth written with a sunbeam, and which is violated by none but unnatural, brutish men.

Ye offer polluted bread; you through covetousness take any the people bring, whether such as the law requires or no. If it answer not the perfection of the law, yet you first make it serve me, through your contempt of me, and then to serve your turn to feed you and yours.

If ye offer the blind: this if implies they had done so, it chargeth them with somewhat in matter of practice among them; the lame and sick also they had offered. Is it not evil? is it not against the express command of God, Lev. 22:22–24, Deut.

And now I, Malachi, pray you, O priests, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us; intercede with God for this sinful people, among which (with the modesty that is usual among God’s saints) he rangeth himself; entreat they may find grace with God, and be pardoned.

Some make this verse to be a kind of wish that there were some among them that would shut up the doors of the temple, and keep out such sacrifices and sacrificers; it would be less displeasing to God, it were better not done at all that so ill done, and so long as it is so ill done God can have no…

This verse is a very full and plain prediction or promise made on behalf of the Gentiles, that they should be a people to the Lord, and should exalt his name, and worship him in a pure way, and well-pleasing to the Lord.

But ye, O priests, principally and first; the people next, by their examples; have profaned it; used it as a common thing, and valued it at a strange undervalue, as if neither excellent nor useful.

Ye said also; to those sins before mentioned, the priests chiefly, and the people with them, added this also, that they openly complained of God’s service.

Now comes a thunder-clap from heaven against sinners, who were before reproved. Cursed be the deceiver; the hypocrite, that doth deceive man, and would deceive God; the false heart, that intends one thing and pretends another, would seem to offer a sacrifice of the best, but puts God off with the…