Malachi Then and Now

An Expository Commentary Based on Detailed Exegetical Analysis

Allen P. Ross

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781683591429
• eBook ISBN: 9781683591436
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

1 God’s Faithful Covenant Love

(Malachi 1:1–5)

Introduction

Translation and Textual Notes

1 A burden — the word of the Lord unto Israel by1 Malachi.2

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.

But you say, “Wherein have you loved us?”

“Is not Jacob Esau’s brother?” is the oracle of the Lord,3

“Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated.

I have made his mountains a desolation

and4 his heritage for jackals of the desert.”

4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,”

the Lord of armies says, “They may build, but I shall tear down;

and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’

and ‘the people with whom Yahweh is angry forever.’”

5 Your own eyes will see this, and you will say,

“Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

Context and Composition

Malachi came on the scene to assist in bringing about the needed reforms permanently. But he found a spirit that would later be expressed in Pharisaism and Sadduceeism, a spirit of outward perfunctory service with little inward repentance or devotion. Not only that, there was widespread skepticism and resignation. The people complained that the earlier prophetic promises had not been fulfilled, and they were impatient for God to judge their enemies, especially the Gentiles, as well as those Jews whom they believed had rebelled against the Lord. And so Malachi had serious issues to address, but he was exactly the right man for the job.

This first brief oracle sets the tone for the entire collection of his messages. In it the prophet tried to lay a foundation for his appeals — to convince the people of God’s love for them. But it had been some time since a prophet had been heard in the land, and the people to whom he preached reacted with a belligerent antagonism. The people simply challenged his assertions.

Because Malachi’s audience was so difficult, he chose to use interrogation and reply as the way to get through to them. In each point he could express what they were thinking, and so he anticipated them with both the questions and the answers. Concerning God’s love for them, they had focused on trivial things that they thought brought the teaching into question and had missed the main point. And so the prophet contrasted the way that God dealt with them with the way he dealt with Edom — and would continue to deal with them in judgment.

Exegetical Comments

1:2

“I have loved.” The declaration of God’s love is expressed with אָהַבְתִּי, the qal perfect, first person common singular. The verb אָהַב means “to love,” very often with the special sense of choosing. If God loved Israel, it meant he chose them for himself; there was affection for sure, but divine election lay behind it all. The nuance here is probably present perfect: “I have loved you” — a love that has continued to the present in spite of all that has happened to the people.

“Wherein.” The anticipated response from the people is a challenge: בַּמָּה is simply “in what?” It means “in what way?” or “wherein?” This will be a repeated response of the people according to Malachi. Their question is a demand for the prophet to prove God loved them, but it is addressed to God: “wherein have you loved us?”

“oracle.” The reply is an oracle from the Lord through the prophet: it begins in verse 2 and extends to verse 3. The text has the noun נְאֻם, “an oracle.” It would be rendered: “[is the] oracle of Yahweh,” but most translate it simply with “says.” But the idea of “oracle” is much stronger than “says.”

“Is not Jacob Esau’s brother?” The oracle reads literally, “Is not Esau a brother to Jacob?” meaning, “Is not Jacob Esau’s brother?” This rhetorical question was designed to reaffirm that Esau was Jacob’s brother, and this statement was then to be the foundation for the next.

“Yet I have loved.” The next clause begins with the preterite with waw consecutive, וָאֹהַב. Recall that I-’aleph verbs like this have a prefix vowel holem, and in the first person common singular form the root letter ’aleph drops out to avoid having two identical letters back to back. The clause in the sequence could be rendered, “and yet I have loved Jacob.”

1:3

“I have hated.” Then, in the next clause (v. 3a) the verb is a perfect tense שָׂנֵאתִי, because the clause begins with a noun (and therefore cannot use the waw consecutive): “but Esau I have hated.” Both verbs should receive the present perfect nuance: “I have loved . . . I have hated.” The verb “to hate” is the opposite of “to love”; it has the sense of reject, usually with strong feelings. Here God chose the line of Jacob, but did not choose the line of Esau. And as time passed, God’s love for Israel grew as they sought to serve him, whereas Esau rebelled.

But we must keep in mind that God’s choosing of the line of Jacob did not mean that everyone in Israel would be a redeemed believer; neither did the rejection of Esau’s line mean that no Edomite ever came to faith.

“Jacob” and “Esau.” The names “Jacob” and “Esau” are metonymies of cause: the ancestors’ names are given, but the people who came from them are the intended meaning.

“desolation.” The rest of verse 3 reminds the people of the devastation that God brought on the descendants of Esau. God made their mountains a desolation, and their heritage for jackals in the desert. Their place was destroyed and left desolate.

1:4

“Edom.” In verse 4 the text refers to the descendants of Esau as “Edom.” The word אֱדוֹם, “Edom,” means “red.” The name was probably originally given to the region because of the very red color of the type of rocky soil in that region, soil that had shifted north when there was a split in the earth’s crust. But there is a popular etymology in Genesis 25 that puns on the name of Esau as “Edom” because Esau was reddish at birth, and then he wanted the red stew from his brother. The text is showing that this person was well-suited to the red lands of Edom.

“If Edom says.” Verse 4 records Edom’s resolve to rebuild their land, a resolve that God would not allow to happen. This is all set in a conditional clause: “If Edom says, ‘We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins.’” The verb in their determination, “we will rebuild,” could be classified as a simple imperfect, expressing their plan to rebuild. But the context calls for something stronger, the cohortative. Normally the qamets he’ would be present with a cohortative, but on III he’ verbs it never is, and so the verb may not have it in this construction. Thus, “we will rebuild” means, “we are resolved to rebuild.” The translation “rebuild” is drawn from the verbal hendiadys, וְנָשׁוּב וְנִבְנֶה, literally, “and we will return and build,” or, “we will build again.”

“Then the Lord of armies says.” The clause answering the conditional clause records the Lord’s resolve: “If they say . . . , then the Lord of armies says . . . ‘I shall tear down.’” The word “hosts,” צְבָאוֹת, means “armies.” The designation includes all armies at God’s disposal — celestial or terrestrial. Whenever prophets use this expression they are announcing some stern message that God will enforce because he has all the power to do it.

In this verse the Lord says, “They may build.” יִבְנוּ is a qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, from בָּנָה. Here it has the modal nuance of possibility — “they may rebuild.” The use of the independent pronouns heightens the contrast: “They may build, but I (as for me on the other hand) I shall tear down.” The verb אֶהֱרוֹס is the qal imperfect, first person common singular; here it is the simple future tense.

“and they will be cal...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 God’s Faithful Covenant Love
• 2. Worship That Dishonors God
• 3. Teaching God’s Word Faithfully
• 4. Profaning the Holy Covenant of Marriage
• 5. God’s Justice and Faithfulness
• 6. God’s Faithfulness to the Faithful
• 7. Preparing for the Day of the Lord
• Conclusion: The Biblical and Theological Emphases of Malachi