Malachichapter 2
17 verses · Malachi · 460 to 430 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
It stands in The covenant with Levi: life and peace, now despised, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The charge against the priesthood, measured against the covenant with Levi, in whose mouth 'the law of truth' was found and who 'turned many away from iniquity', because 'the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts' (2:7). These priests have turned aside and caused many to stumble. Then the second treachery, in the home: 'Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?' They flood the altar with tears while divorcing the wives of their youth, and God sought a godly seed. 'For I hate putting away, saith Jehovah' (2:16).
Context
Prophecy · Malachi · Malachi overview
The world behind this chapter
Malachi 2The history
The first half is addressed to the priests, and it appeals to an ideal: the covenant of Levi, where the law of truth was in his mouth, he walked with God in peace, and turned many away from iniquity. "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." Priests were the teachers as well as the sacrificers.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The threatened punishment is deliberately humiliating in temple terms: God will spread the dung of their sacrifices on their faces. The offal of sacrificed animals was carried outside the camp to be burned, the most unclean waste in the system. It is the strongest possible way of saying their service had become garbage.
The second half turns to marriage, and it names a live crisis. Men were divorcing the wives of their youth and marrying "the daughter of a strange god", women from the surrounding peoples who brought their gods with them. Ezra and Nehemiah both had to confront exactly this, and Nehemiah records children who could not even speak the language of Judah.
In a community of a few tens of thousands surrounded by larger populations, intermarriage was not only a religious risk but an identity one. The book's concern, though, is stated as covenant faithfulness: the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your covenant.
The imagery is domestic and painful. They cover the altar with tears, weeping and crying out, wondering why God does not accept their offering, while the wives they discarded are the reason.
"Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth" is the sentence, and the reason given is that God made them one and "he sought a godly seed", the children were the point.
What it meant to them
This chapter refused to let worship and household conduct be separate subjects. Men were crying at the altar over unanswered prayer and going home to a household they had broken.
For a shrinking, pressured community, the warning was existential. The generation being raised in those homes was the future of the whole covenant people, and it was being handed to gods from next door.
Sources cited
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
Where the chapter sits
Malachi 2 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.
After it: The day that comes; Elijah foretold, chapters 4.
The whole shape of Malachi→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The covenant with Levi: life and peace, now despised
1. (vv. 1-4)
Malachi 2:1
“And now this is My commandment unto you - , not a commandment, which He gave them, but a commandment in regard to them. As God said of old, upon obedience , “I will command My blessing unto you,” so now He would command what should reach them, but a curse. “He returns from the people to the priests, as the fountain of the evil, whose carelessness about things sacred he had rebuked before.”
Malachi 2:2
“When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the L ORD , and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? Corrupt practices are the genuine fruit and product of corrupt principles; and the badness of men's hearts and lives is owing to some loose atheistical notions which they have got and which they govern themselves by.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 2:3
“Spread dung - It is an expression of the greatest contempt. Of your solemn feasts - Your most solemn days and feasts, shall be as loathsome to me as dung, and shall make you, who offer them as unclean, and loathsome, as if I had thrown the dung of those sacrifices into your faces.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 2:3
“You shall get the dung of the maw as your perquisite, instead of the maw. one shall take you away with it--that is, ye shall be taken away with it; it shall cleave to you wherever ye go [MOORE].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Malachi 2:3
“Lo, I will rebuke the seed for your sake - o, i. e., that it should not grow. He who worketh by His sustaining will all the operations of nature, would at His will withhold them. Neither priests nor Levites cultivated the soil; yet, since the tithes were assigned to them, the diminution of the harvest affected them. The meal-offering too was a requisite part of the sacrifice. (See also Joe 1:13; Joe 2:14.)”
Malachi 2:4
“This commandment - That in the first verse; to drive such priests from his presence and his service. That my covenant might be with Levi - I gave the priesthood and the service of my altar to that tribe.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 2:4
“My covenant - If you will not confirm, and keep Levi's covenant among you, I will make it firm on my part, by punishing the violators of it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
And now, O ye priests: , this commandment is for you turns the second dispute into direct address, the Lord threatening to curse the priestly blessings themselves if they refuse to give glory to his name. I will curse your blessings, yea, I have cursed them already states the sentence as already executed rather than merely threatened, and the graphic penalty of verse 3, dung spread upon their faces at their own solemn feasts, matches the disgrace done to the altar with disgrace now done to the priests who serve it. The purpose named is corrective rather than merely punitive, that my covenant might be with Levi, the ruin aimed at restoring the office to what it was meant to be.
2. (vv. 5-7)
Malachi 2:5
“MAURER thus explains it; the Hebrew is, literally, "My covenant was with him, life and peace (to be given him on My part), and I gave them to him: (and on his part) fear (that is, reverence), and he did fear Me," &c. The former portion of the verse expresses the promise, and Jehovah's fulfilment of it; the latter, the condition, and Levi's steadfastness to it (De 33:8, 9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 2:5
“My covenant was with him life and peace; - literally “the life and the peace;” that, which alone is true “life and peace.” The covenant was not with Levi himself, but with Aaron, his representative, with whom the covenant was made in the desert, as is indeed here expressed; and, in him, with all his race after him, who succeeded him in his office; as, when it is said, that 1Ch 6:49, “Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of burnt-offering,” it must needs be understood, not of Aaron in person alone and his sons then living, but of any of his race that succeeded in his and their room.”
Malachi 2:6
“The priest was the ordinary expounder of the law; the prophets were so only on special occasions. iniquity . . . not found--no injustice in his judicial functions (De 17:8, 9; 19:17). walked with me--by faith and obedience (Ge 5:22). in peace--namely, the "peace" which was the fruit of obeying the covenant (Mal 2:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 2:6
“It is God only that by his grace can turn men from iniquity, and yet it is here said of a pious laborious minister that he turned men from iniquity as a worker together with God, and an instrument in his hand; and those that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars, Dan. xii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 2:6
“The law of truth was in his mouth - See the qualifications of Levi: 1. “He feared me;” he was my sincere worshipper. 2. “He was afraid;” he acted as in the presence of a just and holy God, and acted conscientiously in all that he did. 3. “My law of truth was ever in his mouth;” by this he directed his own conduct and that of others.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Malachi 2:7
“For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge - o “He assigns the reason for what he had just said, the law of truth was in his mouth; they had done what it was their duty to do; as in Ecclesiasticus it is said of Aaron (Ecclesiasticus 45:17), ‘God gave unto him His commandments, and authority in the statutes of judgments, that he should teach Jacob the testimonies, and inform Israel in His laws.’ So Paul requires of Titus to ordain such overseers, as shall be able to Tit 1:9, ‘exhort by sound doctrine and to convince gainsayers.’ Wherefore Ambrose calls the Bible, which contains the law of God, ‘the book of priests,’ as specially belonging to them, to be specially studied by them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 2:7
“Here is a memorial of the fidelity and zeal of many of their predecessors in the priest's office, which are mentioned as an aggravation of their sin in degenerating from such honourable ancestors and deserting such illustrious examples, and as a justification of God in withdrawing from them those tokens of his presence which he had granted to those that kept close to him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
My covenant was with him of life and peace: describes an ideal Levi the commentators generally identify with the tribe's priestly calling rather than one man, life and peace given in exchange for the fear wherewith he feared the Lord. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips paints the model priest as a teacher whose walking with the Lord in peace and equity turned many away from iniquity, the pastoral office at its intended best. The principle drawn is timeless, for the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, the same word for messenger Malachi uses of himself and, at 3:1, of the one still to come.
3. (vv. 8-9)
Malachi 2:8
“But ye - o are departed out of the way “of knowledge, truth, equity, fear of God, which I appointed to Aaron and the Levites.” “Ye have caused many to stumble at the law.” He does not simply say, “in the law,” but “at” it. The law was what they stumbled at. They did not only misunderstand the law, through the false teaching of the priests, as though it allowed things which in truth were sins (although this too); itself was their source of stumbling.”
Malachi 2:9
“Because ye do not keep the condition of the covenant, I will not fulfil the promise. partial in the law--having respect to persons rather than to truth in the interpretation and administration of the law (Le 19:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
But ye are departed out of the way: turns from the ideal Levi to the actual priesthood, causing many to stumble at the law and corrupting the very covenant just described. Their partiality in the law, favoring persons rather than administering it evenly, is answered in kind, the Lord making them contemptible and base before all the people exactly as they had made his worship contemptible before them. The measure returned is the same one Obadiah names for Edom, as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee, applied here to Israel's own priesthood rather than to a foreign nation.
B. Judah married the daughter of a foreign godvv. 10-12
Have we not all one father?: The appeal to a shared father and one Creator, have we not all one father, hath not one God created us, grounds the charge that follows, dealing treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of their fathers. The specific treachery named is marriage to the daughter of a strange god, a phrase the bench reads as intermarriage with pagan worshippers rather than a charge against foreign birth as such, the same concern Ezra and Nehemiah confronted in the same period. The Lord's judgment is total, cut off from the tabernacles of Jacob, master and scholar alike, because the covenant people's holiness was meant to be Judah's distinguishing mark and was instead its point of failure.
Malachi 2:10
“Have we not all one Father? - From this to Mal 2:16 the prophet censures the marriages of Israelites with strange women, which the law had forbidden, Deu 7:3. And also divorces, which seem to have been multiplied for the purpose of contracting these prohibited marriages. - Newcome. Why do we deal treacherously - Gain the affections of the daughter of a brother Jew, and then profane the covenant of marriage, held sacred among our fathers, by putting away this same wife and daughter! How wicked, cruel, and inhuman!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 2:10
“One father - Abraham, or Jacob, with whom God made the covenant by which their posterity were made a peculiar people. Created us - The prophet speaks of that great and gracious work of God, creating them to be a chosen people. And so we Christians are created in Christ Jesus.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 2:10
“Two things they are here charged with, as very provoking to God in this matter--taking strange wives of heathen nations, and abusing and putting away the wives they had of their own nation; in both these they dealt treacherously and violated a sacred covenant; the former was in contempt of the covenant of peculiarity, the latter of the marriage-covenant.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 2:11
“Treacherously has Judah dealt; an abomination is committed in Israel - The prophet, by the order of the words, emphasizes the “treachery” and the “abomination.” This have they done; the very contrary to what was required of them as the people of God. He calls the remnant of Judah by the sacred name of the whole people, of whom they were the surviving representatives.”
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 2:11
“And if you wish to see more clearly how utterly unlawful it is for a Christian woman to marry a Gentile, consider what the same apostle says, "A wife is bound for so long time as her husband lives. But if the husband be dead, she is freed to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord," that is, to a Christian. The one who allows second and third marriages in the Lord forbids first marriages with a Gentile.”
Jerome· written before 420· Against Jovinianus 1.10patristic
Malachi 2:12
“God will cut him off, him and all that belongs to him; so the original intimates. He shall be cut off from Israel and from Jerusalem, and not be written among the living there. The Lord will cut off both the master and the scholar, that are guilty of this sin, both the teachers and the taught.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Tears on the altar: the LORD hates putting away
1. (vv. 13-14)
Malachi 2:13
“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.”
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 2:13
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 2:13
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Malachi 2:14
“The wife of thy covenant - To whom thou art so firmly bound, that while she continues faithful, thou canst not be loosed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
And this have ye done again: This have ye done again shifts the dispute from idolatrous marriage to marital treachery within the covenant community itself, covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping that the Lord no longer regards. The people's own question, Wherefore, receives a direct answer, the Lord hath been witness between a man and the wife of his youth, his companion and the wife of his covenant, whom he has dealt treacherously against, almost certainly by unjust divorce in favor of a more attractive or better connected new wife. Marriage is described here in covenantal language rare in the Old Testament, the Lord himself standing as witness to a bond he expects to be honoured as solemnly as the covenant with Levi.
2. (vv. 15-16)
Malachi 2:15
“For in the Gospel of Matthew he says, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery." He also is deemed equally guilty of adultery who marries a woman put away by her husband. The Creator, however, except on account of adultery, does not put asunder that which he himself joined together, the same Moses in another passage enacting that he who had married after violence to a damsel should thenceforth not have it in his power to put away his wife.”
Tertullian· written before 220· AGAINST MARCION 4.34patristic
Malachi 2:16
“For the Lord - hateth putting away - He abominates all such divorces, and him that makes them. Covereth violence with his garment - And he also notes those who frame idle excuses to cover the violence they have done to the wives of their youth, by putting them away, and taking others in their place, whom they now happen to like better, when their own wives have been worn down in domestic services.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 2:16
“Note, Those that would be kept from sin must take heed to their spirits, for there all sin begins; they must keep their hearts with all diligence, must keep a jealous eye upon them and a strict hand, and must watch against the first risings of sin there.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
And did not he make one?: Did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit is among the most disputed sentences in the Twelve, and the bench divides over its exact sense: some read it of Adam and Eve, one flesh made from one pair though the Lord had spirit enough to make many, in order that he might seek a godly seed from a stable home; others connect it to Abraham, one man richly endowed yet seeking godly offspring through Isaac rather than through a plurality of wives. Verse 16 carries its own translation crux, rendered by the King James as the Lord that hateth putting away, and by other readings as a warning that the man who divorces covers his garment with violence, positions the commentators name without settling between them. What both readings agree on is the conclusion, therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously, marital faithfulness required regardless of which grammatical path leads there.
3. (v. 17)
Malachi 2:17
“Such was the dishonesty of the people of whom the Prophet now speaks. He says that they had wearied God, that is, that they had been troublesome to him by their clamorous complaints; for the verb, yg, igo, means to be weary; he says then that they unreasonably complained of God's slowness.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Ye have wearied the Lord with your words: closes the marriage dispute and opens directly into the next, the people's skepticism now turned into moral inversion, calling everyone that doeth evil good in the sight of the Lord, and asking, Where is the God of judgment? The question is not innocent doubt but complaint, the wicked's apparent prosperity used to erase the very distinction between good and evil the whole book has been pressing. The Lord's answer comes immediately at 3:1, Behold, I will send my messenger, the very messenger who will settle the question of judgment the people have just demanded.
This page carries no textual note on Malachi 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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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 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.