malachi-3:14,-malachi-3:16,-jeremiah-29:4-7

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Malachi 3:13-15

Malachi 3:13-15. Your words, &c. “From this verse to the end of Malachi 4:3, the prophet expostulates with the wicked for their hard speeches; and declares that God will make a fearful distinction between them and the righteous.” Newcome. Have been stout against me Your words have been blasphemous, and void of all reverence and duty. Ye have spoken injuriously of me, and have uttered such things as dishonour me. Ye have even arraigned my proceedings, and spoken against them. Yet ye... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Malachi 3:1-18

Cheating God (2:17-3:18)When the Jews saw surrounding nations prosper while they suffered hardship, they complained that God was not just. Other nations made no effort to keep God’s law, whereas Israel was his people (17). Malachi replies that if justice is what the Jews want, then justice is what they will have; but they must realize that such justice will apply to them as well as to their heathen neighbours. They have asked for the God of justice; now he will come and do his work of justice... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Malachi 3:14

ordiance = charge. Hebrew. mizvah . Not the same word as in Malachi 3:7 . Referring to general religious duties. walked mournfully before = gone off mournfully from the presence of Jehovah of hosts. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Malachi 3:14

"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?"This is the age-old problem of the prosperity of the wicked contrasted with the struggles and tribulations of the righteous. Psalms 73 addresses the same problem. The saints of all ages have confronted it and have been perplexed by it. There is only one answer; and it is the same in the Psalm, or in Malachi, or always."It was too painful for... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Malachi 3:14

14. what profit . . . that we . . . kept, c.—(See on Malachi 2:17). They here resume the same murmur against God. Job 21:14 Job 21:15; Job 22:17 describe a further stage of the same skeptical spirit, when the skeptic has actually ceased to keep God's service. Job 22:17- : describes the temptation to a like feeling in the saint when seeing the really godly suffer and the ungodly prosper in worldly goods now. The Jews here mistake utterly the nature of God's service, converting it into a... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Malachi 3:13-15

C. Situation: complacency toward serving the Lord 3:13-15Now the Lord identified the sinful attitude that lay behind the peoples’ failure to tithe. This is the longest speech of the Judahites in the book, and it shows the hardness of the peoples’ hearts. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Malachi 3:14

The Lord obliged them. They had said that serving the Lord and obeying Him did not benefit them, that it did not pay to serve Yahweh. When they mourned over their sins, their physical conditions did not improve."Some of the people who made the complaint (Malachi 3:14) were guilty of the myopic legalism that eventually led to Jewish pharisaism in the first century A.D. This legalism concentrated on performing certain rigorous activities and not doing other things as the means of vindicating... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Malachi 3:1-18

3The Speedy Judgment1. This v. is closely connected with the preceding. It is the answer to the question, ’Where is the God of judgment?’ The messenger is evidently a prophet or a succession of prophets: cp. Deuteronomy 18:9-22. The phrase he shall prepare the way before me is probably borrowed from Isaiah 40:3-5, where the thought is that a highway must be prepared on which ’the Glory of the Lord’ may lead Israel to the land of Canaan. Zechariah (Zechariah 8:8) had promised that Jehovah would... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Malachi 3:1-18

REBUKE OF INFIDELITY. THE ADVENT OF THE LORD FORETOLD (Malachi 2:17 to Malachi 3:18).(17) A new section of the prophecy begins with this verse. The prophet now directs his reproofs against the people for their discontent and their want of faith in the promises of God, because the expected manifestation of God’s glory did not take place immediately. Because the doers of evil seem to flourish, the people say that God takes delight in them, “or” i.e., if this be not the case, “Where is the God of... read more