Malachi 2:13

13 And 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.

Malachi 2:13 Meaning and Commentary

Malachi 2:13

And this have ye done again
Or "in the second" ^F2 place; to their rejection and ill treatment of Christ they added their hypocritical prayers and tears, as follows: covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping, and with
crying out;
for the Messiah they vainly expect, pretending great humiliation for their sins: though some, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra, make the first evil to be their offering illegal sacrifices on the altar, complained of in the former chapter ( Malachi 1:1-14 ) ; and this second, their marrying strange wives, on account of which their lawful wives came into the house of God, and wept over the altar before the Lord, complaining of the injury that was done them: insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth
it with good will at your hand;
which expresses an utter rejection and abrogation of legal sacrifices; and which some make to be the reason of their covering the altar with tears and weeping: or the altar is represented as weeping, because sacrifice is no more offered upon it; see ( Daniel 9:27 ) ( Hosea 3:4 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (tynv) "secundo", Pagninus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Burkius.

Malachi 2:13 In-Context

11 Judah 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.

12 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 And 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.

14 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.

15 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.