Malachi 2:13

13 This is another thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with your tears. You cry and moan, because he does not accept your offerings and is not pleased with what you bring.

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 The people of Judah have broken their promises. They have done something God hates in Israel and Jerusalem: The people of Judah did not respect the Temple that the Lord loves, and the men of Judah married women who worship foreign gods.

12 Whoever does this might bring offerings to the Lord All-Powerful, but the Lord will still cut that person off from the community of Israel.

13 This is another thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with your tears. You cry and moan, because he does not accept your offerings and is not pleased with what you bring.

14 You ask, "Why?" It is because the Lord sees how you treated the wife you married when you were young. You broke your promise to her, even though she was your partner and you had an agreement with her.

15 God made husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit for his purpose -- so they would have children who are true to God. So be careful, and do not break your promise to the wife you married when you were young.