Malachi 2:9

9 "So I have caused all of the people to hate you. They have lost respect for you. You have not done what I told you to do. Instead, you have favored one person over another in matters of the law."

Malachi 2:9 Meaning and Commentary

Malachi 2:9

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base
When their city and temple were destroyed by the Romans, and they were carried captive by them, and became a taunt and a proverb in all places where they came: before all the people;
the nations of the world, among whom they were scattered: according as ye have not kept my ways;
neither those which the law directed to, either moral or ceremonial; nor what the Gospel directed to, the ordinances and institutions of Christ, particularly baptism, which the Jews rejected against themselves, ( Luke 7:30 ) : but have been partial in the law;
in the observance of it, attending to the lesser, and taking no notice of the weightier matters of it, as the Jews are charged by Christ, ( Matthew 23:23 ) and in the interpretation of it, restraining its sense only to outward actions, for which they are reproved, ( Matthew 5:1-48 ) or "received faces", or "accepted persons in the law" F24; in matters of the law they were concerned in, they had respect to the persons of men, by giving the sense of it, and pronouncing judgment, in favour of some, to the prejudice of others, wrongly.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 (hrwtb Mynp Myavwnw) "et accepistis faciem in lege", Pagninus; "assumentes facies", Montanus; "suscipitis faciem", Piscator; "accipitis faciem", Cocceius; "et ferentes faciem in lege", Burkius.

Malachi 2:9 In-Context

7 "The lips of a priest should guard knowledge. People should look for true teaching from his mouth. After all, he is my messenger.
8 But you have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has caused many people to trip and fall. You have broken my covenant with Levi," says the LORD who rules over all.
9 "So I have caused all of the people to hate you. They have lost respect for you. You have not done what I told you to do. Instead, you have favored one person over another in matters of the law."
10 People of Judah, all of us have one Father. One God created us. So why do we break the covenant the LORD made with our people long ago? We don't even keep our promises to one another.
11 You have broken your promises. A hateful thing has been done in Israel and Jerusalem. The LORD loves his temple. But you have polluted it. You men have married women who worship other gods.
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