The Pulpit Commentary — Malachi — Section 5

per damnRtionem, in Rliis Rdimit per jus- brother, ye sho.11 experience the goodness ot tificationem." But Malachi is not speak- God towards you." ing of the predestination of the one brother Ver. 5.-Your eye, 1hall see. Jaoob is and the reprobRtion of the other; he is con- addressed. When you see these proofs of trasting the histories of the two peoples God's Jove for you, you ehe.11 leC\ve off repreaented by them; as Jerome puts it, murmuring and be ready to prnise God "In Jacob vos dilexi, in Esau Idunueos odio for his goodness and power. The Lord will bRbui." Both nations sinned; both are be magui.11.ed; better, the Lord is great; punished; but Israel by God's free mercy Septuagint, 'E/l-•')'a~ov817 Kop,os, "Tile Lord wns forg-iven and restored, while Edom wns wo.s magnified." God makes his gre11tness left in t.Le misecy which it bad btougbt upon known. From (over) the bollder of Israel. itself by its own iniquity. Thus is proved This means either beyond • the limits of God's Jove for the Israelites (KnabenbA.uer). Israel, i.e. in all the world, or upon Israel, That it is of the two nations thA.t the i.e. by the protection which he vouchsafes prophet speaks, rather than of the two to Israel brothers, is seen by what follows. Laid his mountains ... waste. While the Israelites Vers. 6-14.-§ 3. lllf'ael had shown no were repeopling and cultivating their land,· gratitude for all these proofs of God's love, and and their cities were rising from their ruins, the very priests had been the chief offenders anrl the temple and the capital were rebuilt, by offe,-ing defective sacrifice,,, and profaning Edom. which ha.d suffered at the hand of ' the same enemies, had never recovered from the tempk-worship. the blow, and still lay a .scene of desolation Ver. 6.~A aon honoureth hie father.· The and ruin. It seems tha.t Nebuchadnezzar prophet commences with a. genera.I principle attacked and conqnered Edom -Some few whioh every one allows, and argues from vears aft.er he had taken Jerusalem. This that what was the uttitude wl;iich they event happened during one of hie expedi- ought to a.ssum11 towards God. ·A father. tions against Egypt, one of which took God was Jhe Father ,of Israel, by 'creation, place in the thirty-seventh year of hie reign, election, preservation;· watchful •guardian- as we learn from a record lately deciphered ship (see Kxod. iv. 22; Deut. xxxii: 6; Isa. (see 'Transact. of Soc. of Bibi. Areh&lOlogy,' lxiii. 16; lxiv. 8, etc.).. M:y fear. The fear, vii. 210, etc.). (For Edom and its history, respect, reverence, due . t6 i:ne. 0 priests. see the Introduction to Obadiah.) Dragons; He addresses hie reproof' to the· priests, mther, jaokaui (Micah i. 8) ; Septuagint, ••• aa the representatives of the people, and U,-.,-a ;p-1,µ.au, "for habitations of the bound to lead them to obedience a.ud h'oli- desert;" Vnlg-s,te, dra«>neB duerti, whence ness, and to be .i. •pattern to , the flock; the Authorize.i Version. Wherein have we despised 11 thy Name 1 The Ver. 4.-Whereu; rather, if, or altlwagh; priests have grown so ~a.llpu~;·and ·.have so Vnlga.te, quod si. If Edom were to attempt obscured tr\le . religio11: 11:t Pb'.e.risa.ical e·x~ to repair its desolation, the Lord would not terna.lism, that. they profess to .be utterly permit it-a striking contrast to the national unconscious_ J:lpw they_havf S~R~n con,tempt restoration of Israel. We are impoverished; of God. The Name 'of God 1s God himself or, as the Revised Version, we are beaten; and a.U that h'as to do witli 'him: '. Septuagint, '1/ 'Uou/1-aia 1</i'TE<T'Tpa:rrat, "Id u- Ver. 1:~Yli offet-· poli'ut_etl bread (food) m ea ha.s been overthrown." Vnlgate, upon mine ·altu: :·Tne p'ropliet'a'.Ds\Vers the de,,truct.i rumm. The desolate places; Vul- priests simply''IJy' detailing. sdme of their gate, q'l.l,(J'; destrocta runt, places once in- practices. The "bread" (lech~m) ~a.not the habited and now deserted. Compare the shewbrea.d,. which. wa..s not offered on the boast of the Ephre.imitee (Isa. ix. 9, 10). altar, but the :flesh of the offered victims I will throw down. Edom never recovered (see Lev/iiL"n, 16; xxL s; i.xii. 25). its power; it became the prey of the Per- Thie we.a "polluted" in that it 'we.a. Dot sians, the Nabathea.ns, the Jews under the offered in due accordance with the •·cere- l'tfoceabees, the Macedonia.ns, the Romans ; monial. Law, as is further explained in the and -finally the Mohammedan conquest next verse. Wherein have we polluted etfeclkd its utter ruin. They (men) shall thee 1 They did not acknowl'edge the call them, The border of wickedness. Edom truth that (as St. Jerome says} "when sbaJJ be called, " The territory of iniquity,'' the sacra.rneuta are 1.violo.ted, he himself, its mitierable condition attesting the wicked- whose sacraments they are, ie violated" ness of the inhabitants thus punished by (comp. Ezek. xiii. 19; :u. 9; xxxlx. 7). Divine jnstice. Rath indignation; Sep- '.l'he table of the Lord is oontemptible. • Thie tunpn t, wapa-roralC'J'a.<, "bath been set lD wa.e the thought of their heart, if they did battle array;" St. Jerome, "My anger is not give open· expression to it in words. proved by their enduring desolation; and in The "table of the Lord" (ver. 12)-is the contie.et to the evils expnrienced b• your altar, on which were le.id the ea.crifloes,  OJI, I, 1-14,] THE BOOK OF MALACHI. 3