Malachi

1Chapter

No More of This So-Called Worship!

1A Message. God’s Word to Israel through Malachi:
2-3God said, “I love you.” You replied, “Really? How have you loved us?” “Look at history” (this is God’s answer). “Look at how differently I’ve treated you, Jacob, from Esau: I loved Jacob and hated Esau. I reduced pretentious Esau to a molehill, turned his whole country into a ghost town.”
4When Edom (Esau) said, “We’ve been knocked down, but we’ll get up and start over, good as new,” God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “Just try it and see how far you get. When I knock you down, you stay down. People will take one look at you and say, ‘Land of Evil!’ and ‘the God-cursed tribe!’
5“Yes, take a good look. Then you’ll see how faithfully I’ve loved you and you’ll want even more, saying, ‘May God be even greater, beyond the borders of Israel!’
6“Isn’t it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I’m your Father, where’s the honor? If I’m your Master, where’s the respect?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: “You priests despise me! “You say, ‘Not so! How do we despise you?’ “By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship. “You ask, ‘What do you mean, “defiling”? What’s defiling about it?’
7-8“When you say, ‘The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,’ that’s defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you’re trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn’t that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.
9“Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I’ll pay attention to you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.
10“Why doesn’t one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don’t want any more of this so-called worship!

Offering God Something Hand-Me-Down, Broken, or Useless

11“I am honored all over the world. And there are people who know how to worship me all over the world, who honor me by bringing their best to me. They’re saying it everywhere: ‘God is greater, this God-of-the-Angel-Armies.’
12-13“All except you. Instead of honoring me, you profane me. You profane me when you say, ‘Worship is not important, and what we bring to worship is of no account,’ and when you say, ‘I’m bored—this doesn’t do anything for me.’ You act so superior, sticking your noses in the air—act superior to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! And when you do offer something to me, it’s a hand-me-down, or broken, or useless. Do you think I’m going to accept it? This is God speaking to you!
14“A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I’m a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I’ll not put up with it!”
2Chapter

Desecrating the Holiness of God

1-3“And now this indictment, you priests! If you refuse to obediently listen, and if you refuse to honor me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, in worship, then I’ll put you under a curse. I’ll exchange all your blessings for curses. In fact, the curses are already at work because you’re not serious about honoring me. Yes, and the curse will extend to your children. I’m going to plaster your faces with rotting garbage, garbage thrown out from your feasts. That’s what you have to look forward to!
4-6“Maybe that will wake you up. Maybe then you’ll realize that I’m indicting you in order to put new life into my covenant with the priests of Levi, the covenant of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. My covenant with Levi was to give life and peace. I kept my covenant with him, and he honored me. He stood in reverent awe before me. He taught the truth and did not lie. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He kept many out of the ditch, kept them on the road.
7-9“It’s the job of priests to teach the truth. People are supposed to look to them for guidance. The priest is the messenger of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. But you priests have abandoned the way of priests. Your teaching has messed up many lives. You have corrupted the covenant of priest Levi. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so. And so I am showing you up for who you are. Everyone will be disgusted with you and avoid you because you don’t live the way I told you to live, and you don’t teach my revelation truly and impartially.”
10Don’t we all come from one Father? Aren’t we all created by the same God? So why can’t we get along? Why do we desecrate the covenant of our ancestors that binds us together?
11-12Judah has cheated on God—a sickening violation of trust in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the holiness of God by falling in love and running off with foreign women, women who worship alien gods. God’s curse on those who do this! Drive them out of house and home! They’re no longer fit to be part of the community no matter how many offerings they bring to God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
13-15And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.
16“I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.
17You make God tired with all your talk. “How do we tire him out?” you ask. By saying, “God loves sinners and sin alike. God loves all.” And also by saying, “Judgment? God’s too nice to judge.”
3Chapter

The Master You’ve Been Looking For

1“Look! I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you’ve been waiting for. Look! He’s on his way!” A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
2-4But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance? He’ll be like white-hot fire from the smelter’s furnace. He’ll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He’ll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He’ll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.
5“Yes, I’m on my way to visit you with Judgment. I’ll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn’t honor me.” A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
6-7“I am God—yes, I Am. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed. You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven’t done a thing I’ve told you. Return to me so I can return to you,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “You ask, ‘But how do we return?’
8-11“Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day. “You ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’ “The tithe and the offering—that’s how! And now you’re under a curse—the whole lot of you—because you’re robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers.” The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
12“You’ll be voted ‘Happiest Nation.’ You’ll experience what it’s like to be a country of grace.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

The Difference Between Serving God and Not Serving Him

13God says, “You have spoken hard, rude words to me. “You ask, ‘When did we ever do that?’
14-15“When you said, ‘It doesn’t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? When we did what he said and went around with long faces, serious about God-of-the-Angel-Armies, what difference did it make? Those who take life into their own hands are the lucky ones. They break all the rules and get ahead anyway. They push God to the limit and get by with it.’”
16Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God’s presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God’s name.
17-18God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “They’re mine, all mine. They’ll get special treatment when I go into action. I treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them. Once more you’ll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn’t, between serving God and not serving him.”
4Chapter

The Sun of Righteousness Will Dawn

1-3“Count on it: The day is coming, raging like a forest fire. All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash—a black day. But for you, sunrise! The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking. And you’ll tromp on the wicked. They’ll be nothing but ashes under your feet on that Day.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.
4“Remember and keep the revelation I gave through my servant Moses, the revelation I commanded at Horeb for all Israel, all the rules and procedures for right living.
5-6“But also look ahead: I’m sending Elijah the prophet to clear the way for the Big Day of God—the decisive Judgment Day! He will convince parents to look after their children and children to look up to their parents. If they refuse, I’ll come and put the land under a curse.”
Study
Chapter 2
ESV

Fourth Disputation: The Lord Is a Witness against Adultery and Other Moral Offenses. The prophet begins by accusing the people of wearying the Lord with their cynical complaints: “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them” and “Where is the God of justice?” Now that they had returned to the Promised Land and the temple had been rebuilt, many were distressed at the apparent failure of the prophetic promises of restored prosperity, international prominence, and wealth (Haggai 2; Zech. 1:16ff.; 2:1–13; 8:1–9:17). Instead, Israel was experiencing only continued social and political oppression and economic privation (Neh. 1:3; 9:36ff.; Mal. 3:10ff.). Still worse, it had been promised that God would return to Jerusalem and to his temple, which he would again inhabit with his own glorious presence (e.g., Zech. 1:16ff.; 2:4ff., 10–13; 8:3–8; 9:9–17). Since Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were filled with the visible glory of God as soon as they were completed, it was hoped that the same would happen with the rebuilt temple (Ex. 40:34ff.; 1 Kings 8:10ff.; Ezek. 43:1–12). Indeed, Hag. 2:9 promised that the rebuilt temple would be filled with an even greater measure of glory than Solomon’s. But far from enjoying such radiant glory, the temple of Malachi’s day was devoid of any visible manifestation of God. Yet it would not always be so, for Malachi promised, “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Mal. 3:1). Simeon witnessed at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy when he encountered in the temple the infant Jesus, who had come “for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). The NT unfolds further fulfillment, for only the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ would be this greater glory (Luke 2:29–32; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:6).

ESV

Since the priests failed to guard the purity of the temple, the Lord threatens to punish them in a manner that fits their crime. Because they “despised” (1:6) and failed to give honor to the Lord’s name, they will be despised and abased before all the people. Because they “polluted” God (1:7), he will figuratively pollute and disqualify them for service at the altar by spreading on their faces the dung taken from their rejected sacrifices (2:3). Since that dung was to be taken away from the sanctuary and burned (e.g., Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:11ff.), so they too will be taken away. Because they presumed to bless the people of God, as if Israel’s sacrifices had been accepted and atonement made, God will now curse their blessings. As Matthew Henry put it, “Nothing profanes the name of God more than the misconduct of those whose business it is to do honor to it.” On the phrase guard knowledge, see note on Prov. 5:2–3.

CSB

What Malachi taught about divorce must be understood in its historical context. The challenge facing the Judean community after the return from exile was the reestablishment of its religious institutions (see note on Hg 1:5-8). But Judean men were marrying women from other ethnic groups in the region who worshiped pagan gods (Mal 2:11-12)—in some cases, at least, divorcing their Judean wives (“the wife of your youth,” v. 14) to do so. Marriage to unbelievers diluted their commitment to the faith of Israel and resulted in children who were not the “godly offspring” the Lord desired (v. 15). The prophet’s overriding concern was not marriage, as such, but the effect of an unwise mixed marriage on a man’s relationship to the Lord and the impact of many such unions on the solidarity and stability of the covenant community.

Malachi admonished the men of Judah to honor the commitment they had made to the wife they married under the Lord’s covenant and not to “act treacherously” (v. 16) against her. To divorce her to marry a pagan woman would be to break faith with the Lord, as well as with her. The Lord finds such an action detestable. Malachi appealed not only to the covenant but also to the Lord’s creation of man and woman with “a portion of spirit” (v. 15) to become one flesh (Gn 2:7,21-23). As Creator, God is the Father of his people and desires covenantal loyalty within his family (Mal 2:10). (Apparently polygamy was not an option in Judah at this time, although earlier figures in OT history such as the Hebrew patriarchs, David, and Solomon had more than one wife. Either monogamous marriage had become the norm or, under the rigorous conditions of the earlier return from exile, men of ordinary means could not afford to practice polygamy.)

ESV

Third Disputation: Marriage to an Idolater—and Divorce Based on Aversion—Condemned by the Lord, Who Is Witness to the Covenant of Marriage. Malachi introduces his third disputation in v. 10 with a general description of Israel’s infidelity against one another, which profanes their covenant with God, the Father (see 1:6) and Creator of Israel (Deut. 32:6). Malachi condemns two parallel (though not necessarily related) marital offenses: intermarriage with pagans (Mal. 2:11; cf. Neh. 13:29) and divorce based merely on aversion or incompatibility (Mal. 2:13–16). Some have suggested that the divorces were for the purpose of intermarriage (see note on v. 16).

ESV

Malachi’s contemporaries were distressed because God refused to accept their offerings, as evidenced by his withheld blessing. Malachi explains that God was acting as a witness against husbands who were unfaithful to their wives. Marriage is not just a contract, a two-way relationship between husband and wife, but a covenant, a three-way relationship in which the couple is accountable to God, for the LORD was witness to that covenant (see chart). For this reason, spousal fidelity is inextricably linked to spiritual well-being: a marriage must be in good repair, or else the couple’s prayers will be hindered (see 1 Pet. 3:7; cf. Matt. 5:23–25). Malachi’s view of marriage is as radical in conception (identifying marriage as a covenant between the spouses) and in the demands placed on the husband as that put forth in the NT. Other OT passages that support Malachi’s identification of marriage as a covenant include Prov. 2:17; Ezek. 16:8–14; and especially Genesis 2, where covenantal vocabulary (“leave” and “hold fast” in Gen. 2:24) is employed to describe a husband’s duty (cf. the covenantal use of “leave” and “hold fast” in, e.g., Deut. 4:4; 10:20; Josh. 1:5), and where Adam commits himself to Eve before God by employing a formula which is attested elsewhere in covenant-ratifying contexts: “this at last is bone of my bones” (Gen. 2:23; cf., e.g., 2 Sam. 5:1).

ESV

Make them one may be a reference to Gen. 2:24; if so, then perhaps Malachi derived his understanding of marriage as a covenant and the primacy of the husband’s obligation from the exemplary marriage of Adam and Eve. The translation and meaning of this verse are obscure, and various translations have rendered the verse differently, but the approach taken by the esv does account for the dire warnings in Mal. 2:15b and 16b. There is, then, a remarkable similarity between the logic of v. 15 and the teaching of Jesus in Matt. 19:5–9, namely, that it is God who joins a couple together; Malachi says there was a portion of the Spirit in their union. Furthermore, this verse asserts that the Lord intends marriage to produce godly offspring (lit., “a seed of God”). In Malachi’s view, divorce may frustrate this purpose in a manner analogous to marriage to an idolater (Ezra 10:3, 44; Neh. 13:23–27). The expression “a seed of God” reflects the imagery established in Mal. 2:10 (and 1:6) of God as a “Father” to his people, in virtue of his redemptive acts and covenant, and it offers an intentional contrast to the phrase in 2:11, “the daughter of a foreign god.”

ESV

The Hebrew text of this verse is one of the most difficult passages in the OT to translate, with the result that the two main alternative translations proposed for this verse are strongly disputed. The esv translation team has included in a footnote the other most common translation. Given the complexity of the linguistic issues involved, both alternatives are simply summarized briefly as follows, rather than presenting comprehensive arguments for each.

1. The esv text reads, the man who does not love his wife but divorces her. This rendering understands the Hebrew (and the Gk. of the Septuagint) in the sense of, “For he hates (or “does not love”) [and] he divorces.” The action of “hating” and thus “divorcing” is seen also in Deut. 24:3; further, the idea of a man “hating” his wife appears in Gen. 29:31; Deut. 21:15–17; 22:13; each case in the sense of “loving less” or “ceasing to love.” The expression covers his garment with violence is probably a figure of speech referring to the defiling of one’s character with violent wrongdoing (see the similar image in Ps. 73:6; 109:18; Rev. 3:4; and see the opposite in Job 29:14; Ps. 132:9; Isa. 59:17; 61:10). Although divorce based on loss of affection was recognized under the OT civic law, it is nowhere morally approved (unlike divorce based on a spouse’s sexual infidelity or desertion). This is so, as Malachi stresses, because divorce based merely on the loss of affection breaks the marriage covenant and defiles one’s character, since it is untrue to the creation ideal of faithfulness (Gen. 2:24; see note on Deut. 24:1–4).

2. The esv footnote reads, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and him who covers [his garment with violence].” This is similar to the rendering that originally appeared in English in the King James Version of 1611. If this alternative rendering is followed, the focus is on God’s hatred of the practice of divorce, rather than on the hatred of the divorcing man toward his wife. Also following this alternative rendering, the phrase “covers his garment with violence” is understood either: (a) with reference to a second thing that God hates in addition to divorce, namely, the person “who covers his garment with violence”; or, as some hold, (b) that God hates divorce because the act of divorce itself “covers [one’s] garment with violence.”

In either case, this passage is clear in its recognition that the biblical standard for marriage derives from the creation account (see notes on Gen. 2:23–24), which establishes the covenantal nature of marriage. (Jesus, when discussing a question about divorce, began with creation; Matt. 19:3–9.) Malachi starts from this creational base: he refers to creation (Mal. 2:10), calls marriage a covenant (v. 14), refers to the oneness of Gen. 2:24 (“union,” Mal. 2:15), and reminds the community of the purpose of marriage (“godly offspring,” v. 15). The man who would divorce the Israelite wife of his youth (perhaps even for the purpose of taking a pagan girl as his wife) thus commits a grievous offense: he violates the creation order, he breaks his covenantal relationship with his wife—and, in so doing, he deeply damages his character (“covers his garment with violence”). But the impact of divorce reaches far beyond the individual, for divorce has a ruinous effect on the vitality of the whole community (vv. 13–15) and on its ability to fulfill its calling as God’s holy people.

Again, in either case, God is opposed to the kind of divorce that is in view because of the destructiveness and pain that inevitably results when “faithless” husbands send away their wives, as mentioned in Mal. 2:13, 15. (See also the notes on Matt. 5:31–32; 19:3–9; Mark 10:10–12; 1 Cor. 7:15; and Divorce and Remarriage.)