Mal. 2 The priests are sharply reproved for profaning the covenant which was given them, Mal. 2:1–9; and the people for marrying strange wives, Mal. 2:10–12, and treacherously putting away their former ones, Mal. 2:13–16; and for impiety, Mal. 2:17.

This commandment; either this which he had already minded them of about the sacrifices, what ought to be offered and what refused; if the people brought defective sheep or oxen, they who were priests ought not to have admitted, they ought not to have offered them upon God’s altar: or this…

If ye will not hear: this if to the prophet was dubious, but to God, who sent the prophet, it was not doubtful; but it was for monition to the priests and Jews, and implied a condition of mercy if they would yet hear, but an inevitable curse if they did not hear.

Behold; note it well, and consider. I will corrupt your seed; take away the prolific virtue and strength of it, that it shall bring forth none or little fruit: your seed you make plentiful, but you cannot make your harvest so, nor will I, till you give me the glory I contend for, and will have ere…

And ye, O priests, shall know, by sense and feeling, by woeful experience; or, know ye, i.e. but what I speak now, and will do among you. I have sent this commandment; admonition, reproof, and exhortation, to look more carefully for the future, that you do not dishonour me, and make mine altar and…

Here is one covenant that is more particular than any, a covenant of priesthood between God and a particular tribe. With him: Levi is named Mal. 2:4, and I will rest there, though I know some would have it be Aaron, or Phinehas.

The law of truth; the law of God which is the truth, the doctrine of the law according to the true meaning thereof. Was in his mouth; he did teach it to the people, he resolved all cases by this law; Aaron, Eleazar, Phinehas, or, as we must understand it, every one of those godly priests or…

Those forementioned excellent priests did so teach, and so live, forasmuch as they did well consider it was their duty to be well acquainted with, and to have a great insight into, the law of God.

But ye, priests that now are in office, now live, when I, Malachi, am sent to preach, are departed, have shamefully degenerated and turned away from your duty, are apostates, out of the way of God’s law, and of those holy priests your predecessors; out of the way of truth, holiness, peace, and…

Therefore, because you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, and have dishonoured me, and made my sacrifices contemptible, have I also made you contemptible and base; I have left you under the contempt of the people, who think basely of you, as you deserve; you have dishonoured me, and I have made,…

Have we, we Jews, not all one father? either Abraham, or Jacob, (not Adam here intended,) with whom God made the covenant by which the posterity was made a peculiar people, separated from other nations, and on very weighty reasons forbid to join and intermix with strange nations.

Judah: though Judah only is named, yet the rest of the returned captives are included. Dealt treacherously: see Mal. 2:10. An abomination; such treachery is a very abominable thing, God and all good men abhor it, and yet here it is committed in Israel, who are God’s peculiar people, and above…

The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this; the family of those who do this shall be destroyed utterly by the hand of God, he will punish this crime.

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.

Yet ye say, Wherefore? though the fault was so great in the nature of it, and so notorious in the evidence of it, these impudent sinners will not see, but dispute what just cause God hath to reject their offerings.

And did he, God our Creator, not make one, but one man and one woman? Yet had he the residue of the spirit; yet he could have made more men and women; and if it had been good, and well-pleasing to him, he could have made many women for one man; but though by his power he could, yet in his wisdom,…

The prophet enforceth his former exhortation, Mal. 2:15, with the arguments laid here close together from the odiousness of the thing he exhorts them to forbear. It is odious to the Lord, who changeth not, but resents this evil practice as much as ever.

Ye; ye priests and people, slight in your religion toward God. Unfaithful in your covenant with your wives. Have wearied the Lord (after the manner of man this is spoken of God) with your words; your perverse reasonings, or impious quarrellings against God, among which, one most ungodly and…