Malachi 2:9

9 propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles et humiles omnibus populis sicut non servastis vias meas et accepistis faciem in lege

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 labia enim sacerdotis custodient scientiam et legem requirent ex ore eius quia angelus Domini exercituum est
8 vos autem recessistis de via et scandalizastis plurimos in lege irritum fecistis pactum Levi dicit Dominus exercituum
9 propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles et humiles omnibus populis sicut non servastis vias meas et accepistis faciem in lege
10 numquid non pater unus omnium nostrum numquid non Deus unus creavit nos quare ergo despicit unusquisque nostrum fratrem suum violans pactum patrum nostrorum
11 transgressus est Iuda et abominatio facta est in Israhel et in Hierusalem quia contaminavit Iudas sanctificationem Domini quam dilexit et habuit filiam dei alieni
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.