Malachi 2

Malachi 2:1-17 . REPROOF OF THE PRIESTS FOR VIOLATING THE COVENANT; AND THE PEOPLE ALSO FOR MIXED MARRIAGES AND UNFAITHFULNESS.

1. for you--The priests in particular are reproved, as their part was to have led the people aright, and reproved sin, whereas they encouraged and led them into sin. Ministers cannot sin or suffer alone. They drag down others with them if they fall [MOORE].

2. lay . . . to heart--My commands.
send a curse--rather, as Hebrew, "the curse"; namely, that denounced in Deuteronomy 27:15-26 , 28:15-68 .
curse your blessings--turn the blessings you enjoy into curses ( Psalms 106:15 ).
cursed them--Hebrew, them severally; that is, I have cursed each one of your blessings.

3. corrupt, &c.--literally, "rebuke," answering to the opposite prophecy of blessing ( Malachi 3:11 ), "I will rebuke the devourer." To rebuke the seed is to forbid its growing.
your--literally, "for you"; that is, to your hurt.
dung of . . . solemn feasts--The dung in the maw of the victims sacrificed on the feast days; the maw was the perquisite of the priests ( Deuteronomy 18:3 ), which gives peculiar point to the threat here. 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]. Dung shall be thrown on your faces, and ye shall be taken away as dung would be, dung-begrimed as ye shall be ( 1 Kings 14:10 ; compare Jeremiah 16:4 , 22:19 ).

4. ye shall know--by bitter experience of consequences, that it was with this design I admonished you, in order "that My covenant with Levi might be" maintained; that is, that it was for your own good (which would be ensured by your maintaining the Levitical command) I admonished you, that ye should return to your duty [MAURER] (compare Malachi 2:5 Malachi 2:6 ). Malachi's function was that of a reformer, leading back the priests and people to the law ( Malachi 4:4 ).

5-9. He describes the promises, and also the conditions of the covenant; Levi's observance of the conditions and reward (compare Numbers 25:11-13 , Phinehas' zeal); and on the other hand the violation of the conditions, and consequent punishment of the present priests. "Life" here includes the perpetuity implied in Numbers 25:13 , "everlasting priesthood." "Peace" is specified both here and there. 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 ( Deuteronomy 33:8 Deuteronomy 33:9 ). The Jewish priests self-deceivingly claimed the privileges of the covenant, while neglecting the conditions of it, as if God were bound by it to bless them, while they were free from all the obligation which it imposed to serve Him. The covenant is said to be not merely "of life and peace," but "life and peace"; for the keeping of God's law is its own reward ( Psalms 19:11 ).