Malachichapter 1
14 verses · Malachi · 460 to 430 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
It stands in I loved Jacob, and Esau I hated, verses 1 to 5.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The last book of the Old Testament runs as a courtroom argument: God asserts, the people answer back, God replies. 'I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?' The answer is Jacob and Esau, with Edom's ruin as the proof (Paul quotes it in Romans 9). Then the priests: 'A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor?' They bring blind, lame, and sick animals to the altar: 'Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?' Against it stands 1:11: 'from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles.'
Context
Prophecy · Malachi · Malachi overview
The world behind this chapter
Malachi 1The history
By Malachi's day the temple had been standing for decades. The excitement of Haggai and Zechariah's generation had worn off, the great promises had not visibly arrived, and worship had settled into a routine that cost as little as possible.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The whole book is written as a dispute. God makes a statement, the people answer back, "wherein?", and God documents it. That back-and-forth format runs through all four chapters and gives the book its edge.
The first charge is about the animals. The Law required offerings without blemish; the priests were accepting blind, lame, and sick animals. The line that lands hardest is entirely practical: "offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?" Persian provincial governors received gifts and tribute, and nobody would dare hand a Persian official a sick goat. They were bringing God what they would be embarrassed to bring a bureaucrat.
The chapter opens with Edom as the contrast case. Edom, Esau's descendants, had cheered when Jerusalem fell. By this period Edom's homeland was being overrun and its people displaced, eventually pushed into the southern part of Judah while Arab groups took their territory. God points at those ruins and says: when they rebuild, I will throw it down.
And in the middle of a rebuke to a small province comes one of the widest statements in the Old Testament: from the rising of the sun to its going down, my name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my name.
What it meant to them
The people's actual complaint was buried in their question, "wherein hast thou loved us?" They were poor, small, and ruled by foreigners, and they concluded God had lost interest.
God's answer works from the other direction: look at how you treat the altar. Their cheap offerings were not the cause of their disappointment but the evidence of it. A table you despise is a table you no longer believe belongs to a great King.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Malachi 1 falls in Six disputations (chapters 1–3). ‘Wherein have we…?’, the people's challenges answered. Priestly failure (1); faithless marriages (2); robbery in tithes (3); the LORD sudden to his Temple and the Messenger of the covenant.
Esau have I hated. The first disputation; the LORD's love contested by the people.
After it: The day that comes; Elijah foretold, chapters 4.
The whole shape of Malachi→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. I loved Jacob, and Esau I hated
1. (vv. 1-3)
Malachi 1:1
“The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel - o “The word of the Lord is heavy, because it is called a burden, yet it hath something of consolation, because it is not ‘against,’ but to Israel.”
Malachi 1:2
“Esau was Jacob's brother, his twin-brother: " Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau, that is, took Jacob into covenant, and entailed the blessing on him and his, but refused and rejected Esau." Note, Those that are taken into covenant with God, that have the lively oracles and the means of grace committed to them, have reason to look upon these as tokens of his love.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:2
“THE children of Israel had passed through great trouble, but all of it was brought upon them by their own sin. Yet, in their time of trouble, God had remembered them in the greatness of His Grace and mercy. They had been carried into captivity in Babylon and there they had wept when they remembered Zion. They had been scattered over the face of the earth, but God had heard their groans and had restored them to their own land and given them a period of peace and prosperity.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2782: “Love's Lamentation” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Malachi 1:2
“Loved you - Both personally considered and relatively, in progenitors. Us - Who have been captives, and groaned under it all our days 'till of late. Was not Esau - Did not one father beget them, and one mother bear them?”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 1:2
- Quoted inRomans 9:13So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated' ('as it is written')
Malachi 1:3
“And I made his mountains a waste, and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness - o Malachi attests the first stage of fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joe 3:19, vol. i. pp. 214, 215), “Edom shall be a desolate wilderness.” In temporal things, Esau’s blessing was identical with Jacob’s; “the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above;” and the rich soil on the terraces of its mountain-sides, though yielding nothing now except a wild beautiful vegetation, and its deep glens, attest what they once must have been, when artificially watered and cultivated.”
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:3
“His heritage - Mount Seir with the neighbouring mountains. Waste - By Nebuchadnezzar's arms five years after the sacking of Jerusalem, and whereas Jacob's captivity returned, and their cities were rebuilt, Esau's never were. The dragons - Creatures which delight in desolate places, by which the utter desolation of Esau is signified.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The burden of the word of the Lord: to Israel by Malachi opens the last prophetic book of the Old Testament with a name that means my messenger, the very word 3:1 will use of the one still to come. The Lord's opening claim, I have loved you, meets a nation's skeptical question, Wherein hast thou loved us, and he answers from the ledger of Genesis itself, Esau and Jacob were brothers, yet one line was chosen and the other was not. Paul quotes this election language directly at Romans 9:13, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, reading the two nations' histories rather than the individual men's eternal states, a reading the commentators note keeps the verse inside its own historical argument.
2. (vv. 4-5)
Malachi 1:4
“They shall build, but I will throw down - We have already seen enough of the wickedness of the Edomites to justify the utmost severity of Divine justice against them. The pulling down predicted here was by Judas Maccabeus; see 1 Maccabees 5:65; and by John Hyrcanus; see Joseph Antiq., lib. 13 c. 9. s. 1. They shall call them, The border of wickedness - A wicked land. Among this people scarcely any trace of good could ever be noted.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:4
“For a time Judea seemed as desolate as Idumea; but though the latter was once the highway of Eastern commerce, now the lonely rock-houses of Petra attest the fulfilment of the prophecy. It is still "the border of wickedness," being the resort of the marauding tribes of the desert.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Malachi 1:5
“And your eyes shall see - Malicious pleasure in looking on at the misery of Judaea and Jerusalem, had been a special sin of Edom: now God would show Judah the fruit of its reversal, and His goodness toward themselves. , “Ye have assurance of His love toward you and providence over you, when ye see that ye are returned to your own land, and can inhabit it, but they cannot do this: but “they build and I throw down,” and ye, therefore, praise and magnify My name for this, and ye shall say, “The Lord shall be magnified on the border of Israel, i. e., His greatness shall be always manifest upon you;” high above and exalted over the border of Israel which shall retain its name, while Edom shall have ceased to be.”
3 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:5
“And your eyes shall see,....”
Malachi 1:5
“Your eyes - Ye Israelites shall see, in your succeeding generations, that: - The Lord will be magnified - By his kindness in Israel, and his judgments beyond.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Malachi 1:5
“7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the L ORD is contemptible. 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the L ORD of hosts.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Whereas Edom saith: Edom answers the Lord's judgment with defiance, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, the same resolve that rebuilt Judah after exile turned toward rebuilding a ruin the Lord himself has cursed. The Lord's reply is total, they shall build, but I will throw down, so that Edom's very name becomes a byword, the border of wickedness, the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. Israel's own eyes are meant to see the contrast and conclude that the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel, hatred and love both proven by their outcomes on the ground.
B. A son honors his father: where then is my honor?
1. (vv. 6-8)
Malachi 1:6
“Be obedient to your bishop and obey him as your spiritual father. Sons love and slaves fear. "If I am a father," he says, "where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?" In your case one man combines in himself many titles to your respect. He is at once monk, bishop and uncle. But the bishops also should know themselves to be priests, not lords. Let them render to the clergy the honor that is their due that the clergy may offer to them the respect which belongs to bishops.”
Jerome· written before 420· LETTER 52.7patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:6
“He addresses the priests because they ought to be leaders in piety to the rest of the people, whereas they are foremost in "despising His name." Wherein have we despised, &c.--The same captious spirit of self-satisfied insensibility as prompted their question (Mal 1:2), "Wherein hast Thou loved us?" They are blind alike to God's love and their own guilt.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Malachi 1:6
“O priests - Had undutifulness been found among the ignorant people, it might have been a little excusable. But you, O priests, whose business is to know me, have like Eli's sons despised me yourselves, and made others do so too.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 1:7
“Offering polluted bread upon Mine altar - This, continuing on the words, “despisers of My Name,” , is the answer to their question, “Wherein have we despised Thy Name?” “Bread” might stand, in itself, either for the showbread, or for the מנחה minchāh, meal-offering, which was the necessary accompaniment of sacrifices and sometimes the whole.”
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:7
“There cannot be a greater provocation to God than the profanation of his name; for it is holy and reverend. His purity cannot be polluted by us, for he is unspotted, but his name may be profaned; and nothing profanes it more than the misconduct of priests, whose business it is to do honour to it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 1:8
“And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?.... Certainly it is, according to the law in Lev 22:22 or, as Kimchi interprets it, when they bring to you a lamb that is blind for sacrifice to offer it up, ye say, this is not evil; but it is good to offer it up, because the table is contemptible.”
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:8
“Offer it now unto thy governor - פחת pechath, a word signifying a lieutenant, or viceroy, among the Chaldeans, Syrians, and Persians; for neither at this time, nor ever after, was there a king in Israel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Malachi 1:8
“Your earthly ruler would feel insulted, if offered by you the offering with which ye put off God (see Le 22:22, 24). is it not evil?--MAURER translates, "There is no evil," in your opinion, in such an offering; it is quite good enough for such a purpose.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
A son honoureth his father: , and a servant his master: the Lord presses the priests with the plainest household logic, asking where his honour and his fear are if he is truly their father and master. Their answer is not repentance but another skeptical question, Wherein have we despised thy name, and the Lord names it for them at once, polluted bread offered on his altar, food unfit for any earthly governor set before the King of heaven. The bench reads the priests' offense as contempt bred by familiarity, the sacred grown so routine that its corruption no longer registered to them as an insult.
2. (vv. 9-10)
Malachi 1:9
“We must see how much God's judgments are by our means, and be awakened thereby to be earnest with him to return in mercy; and, if we take not this course, how can we think he should regard our persons? He declares his resolution both to secure the glory of his own name and to reckon with those who profane it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:9
“And now entreat, I pray you, God o that He will be gracious unto you - This is not a call to repentance, for he assumes that God would not accept them.”
Malachi 1:10
“DRUSIUS and MAURER translate, "Would that there were absolutely some one of you who would shut the doors of the temple (that is, of the inner court, in which was the altar of burnt offerings), and that ye would not kindle fire on My altar in vain!" Better no sacrifices than vain ones (Isa 1:11-15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:10
“Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?.... Either of the temple, as the Targum and Jarchi; for at each of the gates of the temple there were porters appointed in David's time, 1Ch 26:1 and who were paid for their service: or of the court, as Kimchi; the court of the priests where the offerings were brought.”
Malachi 1:10
“Who is - among you - From this we learn that there was not one sincere or honest priest among them. They were selfish and worldly; and so basely so, that not one of them would even kindle a fire on the hearth of the altar unless he were paid for it.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I pray you, beseech God: Now beseech God that he will be gracious unto us, the Lord says with evident irony, since the very worship meant to secure his favor has itself become the offense against it. He would rather the temple stood shut, neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought, than receive service offered without honour, a plain statement that empty ritual is no service at all. I have no pleasure in you names the verdict on the priesthood directly, and the commentators read it as anticipating the purer worship of the nations described in the next verse.
C. A great name among the nations, but a cursed deceiver
1. (v. 11)
Malachi 1:11
“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same,.... From east to west, which is all habitable; not so north and south, as Kimchi observes, the extremes of which are not habitable.”
3 more voices on this verse
Malachi 1:11
“For - The form of words does not express whether this declaration relates to the present or the future. It is a vivid present, such as is often used to describe the future. But the things spoken of show it to be future. The Jewish sacrifices had defects, partly incidental, partly inherent. Incidental were those, with which the prophet had upbraided them; inherent (apart from their mere typical character) that they never could be the religion of the world, since they were locally fixed at Jerusalem.”
Malachi 1:11
“Incense - A law term for a gospel duty, and under this type are contained the prayers and praises, nay, the whole gospel-worship. A pure offering - Both sincere, in opposition to hypocrisy, and holy, in opposition to impurity, superstition and idolatry.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 1:11
“It might be said, "If these are not the worshippers whom God will accept, then he has no worshippers." As if he must make the best of their service, or else he would have no service done him; and then what will he do for his great name? But let him alone for that; though Israel be not faithful, be not gathered, yet God will be glorious.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
my name shall be great among the Gentiles: From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles is among the boldest claims in the Twelve, a pure offering promised in every place while Judah's own priests defile the one altar the Lord actually has. The readings divide over what the verse describes: some of the bench read it of pagan worship already, however corrupted, honoring the true God under other names by natural light; others read it as prophetic, the pure offering of Gentile worship in Christ still future to Malachi's own day. Either way the contrast with verses 12 to 14 is deliberate, foreign devotion measured favorably against Israel's own contempt for what it already possesses.
2. (vv. 12-14)
Malachi 1:12
“Renewal of the charge in Mal 1:7. fruit . . . meat--the offerings of the people. The "fruit" is the produce of the altar, on which the priests subsisted. They did not literally say, The Lord's table is contemptible; but their acts virtually said so.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:12
“Ye say - By your deportment. Is polluted - Not a sacred thing. His meat - Either the meat which fell to the priest's share, or the portion which was laid upon the altar.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 1:13
“Also Isa 43:22-24, wherein He shows that it is they who have "wearied" Him, not He who has wearied them. snuffed at--despised. it--the table of the Lord, and the meat on it (Mal 1:12). torn--namely, by beasts, which it was not lawful to eat, much less to offer (Ex 22:31). thus . . . offering--Hebrew, mincha; the unbloody offering of flour, &c.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:13
“Wherein have I wearied thee? But their own wicked hearts made it a weariness; and they were, as Doeg, detained before the Lord; they would rather have been any where else. Note, Those are highly injurious, both to God and themselves, who are weary of his service and worship, and snuff at it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 1:14
“Cursed be the deceiver - Those who act thus, as they cannot elude God’s notice, so neither shall they escape his curse. And voweth, and sacrificeth - a corrupt thing - The history of Ananias and Sapphira, Act 5:1, etc., is a complete comment on this. It was high time to break up this corrupt service; and after this time God does not appear to have paid any regard to it, for he sent them no other prophet.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 1:14
“The deceiver - The hypocrite that would seem to offer a sacrifice of the best, but puts God off with the worst. A male - A perfect male, such as God requireth.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
But ye have profaned it: turns from the nations' future honour back to Judah's present contempt, the table of the Lord called polluted and its fruit, his meat, contemptible in their own mouths. What a weariness is it, they say, snuffing at the service and bringing the torn, the lame, and the sick as if the Lord could not tell the difference, or would not care. The Lord answers as a great King rather than an indulgent father, cursed be the deceiver who vows a sound animal and sacrifices a corrupt one, for my name is dreadful among the heathen, the same Gentiles of verse 11 now standing as a rebuke to the very people who should have known better.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.