Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Malachi Capítulo 2

Malachi 2:1. This commandment is for you— This decree is for you, or, this is decreed concerning you; for here is no commandment given to the priest, only punishment is denounced upon them, if they do not repent.

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Malachi 2:2. I will even send a curse upon you— I will send a famine upon you. The last clause should be rendered, Yea, I will therefore curse them [that is to say, the blessings], because you do not repent. I will curse your blessings, means "those gifts which are brought to you from the productions of the earth;" for these productions are frequently called blessings in Scripture.

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Malachi 2:3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, &c.— Behold, I am about to take away the shoulder from you [namely, the right shoulder, which, by the law, was the peculiar portion of the priests]; and to throw the fat into your faces, even the fat which is offered in your sacrifices [meaning the fat which covered the intestines, and which was burnt upon the altar]; and it shall take you away with it. God threatens that he will not accept this gift, but will reject it, and throw it with disdain into the faces of the priests, and by that stroke repulse or drive them from the altar. He goes on, Malachi 2:4. And ye shall know, that I have sent this commandment or statute concerning you, [that is to say, to drive you from mine altar, Malachi 2:1.] that it may be instead of the covenant with Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. That is, "this shall be established, that Levi be driven from the priesthood;" for ברית berith, is here taken in a bad sense, as this passage is full of threats, and not of promises; and therefore the word signifies here, not covenant, properly speaking, but that which is ratified, certainly fixed and determined, as in many other places. This is Houbigant's interpretation.

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Malachi 2:5. My covenant was with him, &c.— Here the word covenant is taken in a good sense; for in this and the two following verses, the nature of the covenant of God with Levi is explained, as in the eighth verse these corrupt priests are reproved for having violated that covenant. The passage should be rendered, I gave them to him, that he might greatly fear me, and tremble at my name. Malachi 2:6. That the law of truth might be in his mouth, and no iniquity be found in his lips: that he might walk with me in peace and equity; that he might turn, &c. Malachi 2:7. That the priest's lips might keep knowledge, and that they might seek, &c. See Houbigant, who, instead of, Have been partial, Mal 2:9 reads, Have had respect to persons.

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Malachi 2:10. Have we not all one Father? &c.— Here a new section begins, wherein the prophet severely reproves the people for marrying strange wives, which was much practised in Ezra's and Nehemiah's time, who expressed great detestation of it. Ezra 9:1-2.Nehemiah 13:23; Nehemiah 13:23. The prophet begins his expostulation with putting them in mind that they owned one God and Father, in opposition to the idols of the heathen, and therefore should dwell with one another as brethren, being nearly allied by spiritual, as well as fleshly relation. See Mal 2:14 and Lowth.

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Malachi 2:12. The Lord will cut off, &c.— Whosoever doeth this, the Lord will cut off for him both boy and girl, from the tabernacle of Jacob, that he may not offer an offering, &c. Houbigant.

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Malachi 2:13. And this have ye done again— This also you have done; you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with groanings; so that no respect is now had to your offering, nor is any thing accepted from your hand. The priests not only had married strange wives, but also divorced those of their own country whom they had married; with whose tears the altar was imbrued, when these wives offered up their sacrifices to God, entreating him to give their husbands a better mind; whom God heard so effectually, that he would not accept the sacrifices of their husbands, on account of the tears and just complaints of their wives. Houbigant.

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