Malachi 1:4

4 Though Edom says, "We have been ¹beaten down, but we will ^[a]2return and build up the ruins "; thus says the LORD of hosts, "They may ³build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the ^[b]wicked territory, and the people ^[c]toward whom the LORD is indignant ⁴forever *."

Malachi 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Malachi 1:4

Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished
Or the Idumeans, as the Targum; the posterity of Esau, who acknowledge themselves greatly reduced by the desolations made in their country, cities, towns, and houses, being plundered of all their valuable things. Kimchi interprets it, if the congregation of Edom should say, though we are become poor and low, and our land is laid waste: but we will return;
being now become rich, as the Targum adds; that is, as Jarchi explains it, with the spoils of Jerusalem: and build the desolate places:
as Israel did, as Kimchi observes, when they returned from their captivity; and so the Edomites hoped to do the same: thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw
down;
they attempted to build again their cities and towns, but could not succeed, God was against them: and they shall call them;
or, "they shall be called" ^F21; this shall be the name they, shall go by among men, by way of proverb and reproach: The border of wickedness;
a wicked kingdom and nation, from one end to the other; this shall be said of them, as the reason of their utter and perpetual desolation: and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever;
not for seventy years only, as against the Jews, ( Zechariah 1:12 ) , but forever; and these are now no more a people; they are utterly extinct; their name and nation are lost; there is not the least appearance of them; when the Jews, though they are scattered about in the world, yet they are still a people, and distinct from all others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (Mhl warqw) "et vocabuntur", V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Grotius.

Malachi 1:4 In-Context

2 "I have loved you," says the LORD . But you say, "How have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD . "Yet I have loved Jacob;

3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness."

4 Though Edom says, "We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins "; thus says the LORD of hosts, "They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever ."

5 Your eyes will see this and you will say, "The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel!"

6 " 'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 5:17
• 2. Isaiah 9:9, 10
• 3. Amos 3:15; Amos 5:11; Amos 6:11
• 4. Ezekiel 35:9; Obadiah 10

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "rebuild the ruins"
• [b]. Lit "border of wickedness"
• [c]. Or "whom the LORD has cursed"