Malachi 2:9

9 For the which thing and I gave you worthy to be contemptible, either worthy to be despised, and bowed to all peoples, as ye kept not my ways, and took a face [of a person] in the law. (For which thing I made you worthy to be contemptible, or worthy to be despised, and bowed low before all the people of Israel, for ye have not kept my ways, and ye took a face of a person in the law, that is, ye have shown partiality.)

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 For the lips of a priest keep knowing, and they shall again-seek the law of his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. (For a priest's lips should guard my gift of knowledge, and my people should seek the Law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.)
8 But ye went away from the way, and caused to stumble full many in the law; ye made void the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. (But then ye went away from the way, and have caused a great many to stumble in the Law; ye priests have made void my covenant with the Levites, saith the Lord of hosts.)
9 For the which thing and I gave you worthy to be contemptible, either worthy to be despised, and bowed to all peoples, as ye kept not my ways, and took a face [of a person] in the law. (For which thing I made you worthy to be contemptible, or worthy to be despised, and bowed low before all the people of Israel, for ye have not kept my ways, and ye took a face of a person in the law, that is, ye have shown partiality.)
10 Whether not one father is of all you? whether not one God made of nought you? Why therefore each of you despiseth his brother, and defouleth the covenant of your fathers? (Is there not one Father of us all? did not one God make all of us out of nothing? And so why do each of you despise his brother, or his kinsman, and why defileth your forefathers? covenant?)
11 Judah trespassed, and abomination is done in Israel, and in Jerusalem; for Judah defouled the hallowing of the Lord, which he loved, and he had the daughter of an alien god. (The people of Judah trespassed, and abomination was done in Israel, and in Jerusalem; for the people of Judah defiled the holiness of the Lord/for the people of Judah defiled the Temple of the Lord, and they married the daughters of a foreign, or of a strange, god.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.