Malachi 1:4

4 Though Edom says, We are crushed down but we will come back, building up the waste places; this is what the Lord of armies has said: They may put up buildings, but I will have them pulled down; and they will be named The land of evil-doing, and The people against whom the Lord keeps his wrath for ever.

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 You have been loved by me, says the Lord. But you say, Where was your love for us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord: but Jacob was loved by me,

3 And Esau was hated, and I sent destruction on his mountains, and gave his heritage to the beasts of the waste land.

4 Though Edom says, We are crushed down but we will come back, building up the waste places; this is what the Lord of armies has said: They may put up buildings, but I will have them pulled down; and they will be named The land of evil-doing, and The people against whom the Lord keeps his wrath for ever.

5 And your eyes will see it; and you will say, The Lord is great even outside the limits of Israel.

6 A son gives honour to his father, and a servant has fear of his master: if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord of armies to you, O priests, who give no value to my name. And you say, How have we not given value to your name?