Malachi 2 · The Lantern

A Warning to the Priests

And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.

If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.

Look, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the LORD of hosts.

My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear with which he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

For neither may we address ourselves to almighty God, but only by Christ. In the same manner, therefore, let the laity make known all their desires to the bishop by the deacon, and accordingly let them act as he shall direct them. For there was no holy thing offered or done in the temple formerly without the priest.

(Verse 7) For the lips of the priest preserve knowledge, and people seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. LXX: For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Almighty.

For in sacred language teachers are sometimes called prophets, in that, by pointing out how fleeting are present things, they make manifest the things that are to come.

But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Judah’s Unfaithfulness

Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Truly, then, the Scripture declared, which says, "First of all believe that there is one God, who has established all things, and completed them, and having caused that from what had no being, all things should come into existence:" He who contains all things, and is Himself contained by no one.

But this is God's kindness to humanity, that of whom he is the maker, of them according to grace he afterwards becomes Father also.

(Verse 10 and following) Is not the Father one of us all? Is not God one who created us? Why then does each one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers? Judah has transgressed, and abomination has been made in Israel and in Jerusalem: because Judah has defiled the sanctification of the Lord, which he loved, and has taken the daughter of a foreign god.

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god.

The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers an offering to the LORD of hosts.

And this have you done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, so that he regards not the offering any more, or receives it with good will at your hand.

Yet you say, Why? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And why one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, In which have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Malachi2

A Warning to the Priests

Judah’s Unfaithfulness