Malachi 1:5

5 You will see these things with your own eyes and say, 'Even outside the borders of Israel the LORD is great.'

Malachi 1:5 Meaning and Commentary

Malachi 1:5

And your eyes shall see
The destruction of the Edomites, and their fruitless attempts to rebuild their desolate places; and the difference between them and the Israelites, who were returned to their own land, and inherited it, when they could not; and the love of God to the one, and his hatred of the other:

and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of
Israel;
Aben Ezra interprets it, ye that dwelt in the border of Israel shall say, the Lord shall be magnified, or let him be magnified; let greatness and glory be ascribed to him for what he has done: or, as Kimchi, give him praise and greatness because you are dwelling in your border, and their border is desolate; and your border is called the border of Israel, but theirs the border of wickedness; and so the Targum,

``let the glory of the Lord be multiplied, because he hath enlarged the border of Israel;''

and, according to Jarchi, the sense is, he shall show his greatness from our border, to make it known that we are his people: all show and own that God had loved them more than others, and therefore they ought to have honoured and obeyed him, in which they were deficient, and so ungrateful.

Malachi 1:5 In-Context

3 but Esau I hated. I turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the jackals in the desert.

4 "The descendants of Esau may say, 'We have been beaten down, but we will rebuild the ruins.' "Yet, this is what the LORD of Armies says: They may rebuild, but I will tear it down. They will be called 'the Wicked Land' and 'the people with whom the LORD is always angry.'

5 You will see these things with your own eyes and say, 'Even outside the borders of Israel the LORD is great.'

6 "This is what the LORD of Armies says: A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master. So if I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my respect? You priests despise my name. "But you ask, 'How have we despised your name?'

7 "You offer contaminated food on my altar. "But you ask, 'Then how have we contaminated you?' "When you say that the LORD's table may be despised.