Malachi 2:1-3

A curse pronounced upon the faithless priests, 1-9.

The condemnation of priests and people in Malachi 1:6-14, is followed by the announcement of a curse upon the priests, who have proved disloyal to Jehovah and to their high calling.

Malachi 2:1 is introductory, announcing to the priests that the succeeding oracle is intended in a special manner for them. The order of the words in the original makes the announcement more emphatic: “And now, this commandment is for you, O priests.”

And now Your guilt having been established.

O ye priests The message is addressed directly to the priests.

This commandment Includes the entire message contained in Malachi 2:2-9. No command of any sort is found in these verses, not even an exhortation to repentance, though such exhortation is implied in Malachi 2:2; hence the word cannot be understood in the narrow sense of commandment, but as meaning purpose or decree. The divine decree, shown by the succeeding verses to be one of destruction, is for the priests.

The case is put very clearly in Malachi 2:2. Either they must give glory to the name of Jehovah or destruction will be their portion.

If ye will not hear That is, pay attention to the words of warning already spoken or to any that may yet be spoken.

Lay to heart The same message of warning; so as to profit by it.

Give glory unto my name As the result of laying the message to heart. How they may give glory to the name of Jehovah may be seen from Malachi 1:6-14, by rendering to him the service which is his due. If they fail to reform, and reform quickly; disaster will overtake them.

I will even send a curse R.V., “then will I send the curse.” The article is emphatic; the curse threatened for such disobedience (compare Deuteronomy 27:15-26; Deuteronomy 28:15 ff.).

I will curse your blessings The blessings are not those “pronounced by the priests upon the people by virtue of their office,” which God will make ineffective or turn into the very opposite; nor are they the priestly income, the sacrificial portions belonging to the priests; but, in a more general sense, the blessings, favors, and privileges bestowed upon their order and tribe by Jehovah; from their honorable position he will reduce them and their posterity and make them “contemptible and base before all the people” (Malachi 2:9). LXX. reads “your blessing” (singular), and since the pronoun in the next clause is in the singular in Hebrew, it (Eng. them), it is not improbable that LXX. has preserved the original.

I have cursed them already The curse has already been decided upon in the divine mind, because Jehovah knows their stubbornness. Some commentators consider the latter part of Malachi 2:2, beginning, “I have cursed them already,” a later addition, because (1)

LXX. does not agree with the Hebrew text, (2) they think Malachi 2:3 would make a better continuation of 2a. The arguments are inconclusive.

Malachi 2:3 continues the threat.

I will corrupt Better, R.V., “rebuke,” and so destroy (compare Zechariah 3:2). Wellhausen changes the verb into “I will cut off” (see next comment).

Your seed LXX, and other ancient versions read, with a different vocalization, “thy arm,” which many commentators, even the conservative Keil, consider original, “because the priests did not practice agriculture.” Wellhausen and those who accept his emendation of the verb read the clause, “I will cut off thine arm.” Since the arm is used in the performance of priestly duties, Keil explains the expression to rebuke the arm as signifying “the neutralizing of the official duties performed at the altar and in the sanctuary”; that is, though they will continue their ministries, Jehovah will make them of no effect. However, if the reading of LXX. is accepted, the threat seems to imply more than a neutralizing of their ministrations; it means the rebuke (destruction) of the arm, so that they can no longer perform their unacceptable service; in other words, the withdrawal of their authority, office, and power. The testimony of LXX., and especially of the literal translation of Aquila, cannot be disregarded, and it is not impossible that these ancient versions have preserved the original; nevertheless, the Hebrew text, as it now stands, also gives a satisfactory sense. Certainly seed cannot be understood of the seed sown by the priests, which God will curse and thus cause a failure of the crops; little better is the suggestion of Pusey, that it is the seed sown by the people. “Since the tithes,” says he, “were assigned to them (the priests and Levites), the diminution of the harvest affected them.” But in the Old Testament seed is used very frequently in the sense of posterity, and this would give good sense here. The covenant with Levi (Malachi 2:4-5; Malachi 2:8) was to hold good also for his posterity, but the corruption of the present generation of priests had gone so far that the entire tribe deserved to be cut off; those who are priests now as well as their descendants will be affected by the curse.

Their own persons, which should be considered sacred, will receive the most shameful treatment.

Spread dung upon your faces A figure of the most ignominious treatment.

The dung of your solemn feasts For solemn feasts see on Hosea 2:11. The dung is that which is left in the fore-courts by the animals used for sacrifice on the feast days. This dung was unclean, and was to be carried to an unclean place and burned (Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:11; Leviticus 16:27). Marti and others consider these words as well as the last clause a later addition, and the text of the latter they consider hopelessly corrupt; Nowack does not even attempt a translation.

One shall take you away with it R. V., more idiomatically, “ye shall be taken away with it.” The obscurity of the clause can be seen best from the various interpretations given to the same even by those who express no doubts as to its originality. If the words are original, the following seems the most satisfactory interpretation: The Hebrew reads “unto it” (so margin), not “with it,” and this should be retained; unto it can refer only to the dung spoken of in the preceding clause. Not only will dung be cast into their faces, but they will be taken up bodily and cast upon the dung heaps; in the words of Hitzig, “Dung shall be cast upon them, and they on the dung.” Such treatment would be impossible while people looked upon the priests as mediators between them and God; it presupposes the dishonoring of the priests by Jehovah himself.