*H The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachias.
Ver. 1. Malachias, "the angel of the Lord." S. Jerom always reads Malachi, "my angel." Sept. "his angel;" whence Origen infers, that this was an angel incarnate. C.
*H I have loved you, saith the Lord: and you have said: Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau brother to Jacob, saith the Lord, and I have loved Jacob,
Ver. 2. Loved us. So they thought, (Theod.) and perhaps spoke. H. — Jacob. I have preferred his posterity, to make them my chosen people, and to load them with my blessings, without any merit on their part, and though they have been always ungrateful; whilst I have rejected Esau, and executed severe judgments upon his posterity. Not that God punished Esau or his posterity beyond their deserts, but that by his free election and grace he loved Jacob, and favoured his posterity above their deserts. See the annotations upon Rom. ix. Ch. — Neither deserved any thing. God's choice was gratuitous, both with respect to the fathers and their offspring. W.
* Footnote * Romans 9 : 13
As it is written: Jacob I have loved: but Esau I have hated.*H But have hated Esau? and I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the desert.
Ver. 3. Esau, perceiving the evil which was already in him, and would appear afterwards; (S. Jer. and Theod.) or rather he was a figure of the reprobate, though not of course one himself. S. Aug. — A person is said to hate what he loves less. Esau's privileges were transferred to his brother, who enjoyed a much finer country, and was chosen for God's peculiar inheritance. C. — Temporal blessings are here specified. — Dragons. Sept. "houses;" so that they shall be deserted. H. — Edom was ravaged by Nabuchodonosor. The people retired into the cities, from which the Jews were driven. Yet afterwards they rebuilt their own habitations.
*H But if Edom shall say: We are destroyed, but we will return and build up what hath been destroyed: thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall build up, and I will throw down: and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the people with whom the Lord is angry for ever.
Ver. 4. Down, by the Machabees, who forced the people to receive circumcision. 1 Mac. v. 3. C. — At that time the Jews were more pious, and glorified God. H. — Ever. God's gratuitous love appears in his leaving Edom in captivity, and restoring the Jews. W.
*H The son honoureth the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear: saith the Lord of hosts.
Ver. 6. Father. God sometimes took this title. Ex. iv. 32. But he was oftener represented as a master; and the old law was a law of fear. C. — Servant et metuunt jus. Juv. xiv.
*H To you, O priests, that despise my name, and have said: Wherein have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: Wherein have we polluted thee? In that you say: The table of the Lord is contemptible.
Ver. 7. Bread, including all the victims, &c. Lev. iii. 11. Num. xxviii. 2. C. — By vile presents they shew their contempt of God. W.
*H If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? offer it to thy prince, if he will be pleased with it, or if he will regard thy face, saith the Lord of hosts.
Ver. 8. Lame. The victims must be without defect. Lev. xxii. 21. Those of the Jews were also rendered inadmissible by their evil dispositions. Agg. ii. 14. It is surprising, that after such scourges they should not have been more upon their guard. The negligence of the sacred ministers, is a sure sign of faith being extinct. C. — Pagans often thus treated their idols. Clem. Strom. vi. — Prince: the governor sent by the Persians. If you dare not make such presents to men of eminence, how shall I accept them? C. — How dare you offer them to me? W.
*H Who is there among you, that will shut the doors, and will kindle the fire on my altar gratis? I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will not receive a gift of your hand.
Ver. 10. Gratis? Are you not well paid? Why then perform you not your duty exactly? C. — Sept. "Wherefore also among you shall the doors be shut, and my altar is not enkindled for nought," (H.) as if God menaced the Jews with the rejection of the temple, as the sequel does. C. — Pleasure. Many other prophets had foretold the reprobation of the synagogue, but none more plainly. The reason is also assigned, viz. the ingratitude and repeated sins of the people, on which account the Gentiles of all countries shall be chosen. W.
*H For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.
Ver. 11. Sacrifice. Prot. "incense." H. — Clean oblation. The precious body and blood of Christ in the eucharistic sacrifice. Ch. — This is denoted by the very word mincha, the offering of flour and wine. C. See S. Just. dial. S. Iræn. iv. 32. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei. xviii. 35. — "We pollute this bread, that is the body of Christ, when we approach the altar unworthily." S. Jer. v. 7. — This sacrifice is always pure, though the priest or receiver be otherwise. C. — Hence it is always clean. Trid. xxii. C. i. M. — It is offered daily throughout the world. The Jews see the completion of this prediction, and are vexed; they strive to elude its force. Though enemies, they bear about these proofs of our faith, and of their own condemnation. C. — God not only changed his people, but instituted a better sacrifice. Instead of the former needy elements, (Gal. iv.) which were often defiled by the sins of the offerers, He instituted the sacrifice of his own Body and Blood, under the appearance of bread and wine, as S. Chrys. (in Ps. xcv.) Theod. &c. prove against all opponents. A sacrifice different from any offered by the Jews, who could offer only at Jerusalem, (Deut. xvi.) is clearly specified, as many have demonstrated. W. — Christ's bloody sacrifice on the cross was performed on Calvary, and not among the Gentiles. What sacrifice can Protestants now produce? H.
* Footnote * Psalms 112 : 3
From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is worthy of praise.*H And you have profaned it in that you say: The table of the Lord is defiled: and that which is laid thereupon is contemptible with the fire that devoureth it.
Ver. 12. It. The priests complain that all is burnt, (Grot.) or rather they treat sacred things with contempt. C. — They falsely pretend that they give their best, being poor. M.
*H And you have said: Behold of our labour, and you puffed it away, saith the Lord of hosts, and you brought in of rapine the lame, and the sick, and brought in an offering: shall I accept it at your hands, saith the Lord?
Ver. 13. Behold of our labour, &c. You pretended labour and weariness, when you brought your offering; and so made it of no value, by offering it with an evil mind. Moreover, what you offered was both defective in itself, and gotten by rapine and extortion. Ch. — These were two defects. W. — Heb. "what fatigue, or if we change one letter, and read (C.) mothlaé, (H.) it stinks, and you." &c. Some copies of Sept. Arab. &c. "I blew them away," with disgust. — Rapine. Eccli. xxxiv. 24. — Offering. Mincha, v. 11. C. — Such victims and presents as are lame or strange, are rejected. Pliny viii. 45.
*H Cursed is the deceitful man that hath in his flock a male, and making a vow offereth in sacrifice that which is feeble to the Lord: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the Gentiles.
Ver. 14. Male. So better things are styled mascula thura. Virg. Pliny xii. 14. — It was unlawful to offer a female by vow, but not out of devotion. Lev. xxii. 18. 23. C. — King. So the Persian monarchs were called. — Dreadful. Gr. "Epiphanes." H.