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for their infidelity. A. M. 3604. and I will be a swift witness against || are gone away from mine ordinances, A. M. 3604. the sorcerers, and against the adulte- and have not kept them. Return P rers, 1and against false swearers, and against unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the those that oppress the hireling in his wages, LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn we return? aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

8 ¶ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

and always must have an unchangeable hatred to all sin: and my long-suffering also changes not, and therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed—Are not destroyed and sent into eternal misery in your sins. God's wisdom also changes not, but remains the same to dispense rewards to the good, and punishments to the wicked, in the fittest season, and therefore neither the one nor the other are consumed, but preserved to the time appointed of God. Or, the sense may be, Because I am the same yes

imports, and I am true to my former promises, (see Ex. vi. 3-6,) therefore you still continue a people, and are not consumed, as your iniquities deserve. And I will still preserve a remnant of you to fulfil to them the promises I made to your fathers: see Rom. xi. 29.

of judgment? chap. ii. 17, God here tells them that he will hasten the time of judgment, and it shall come speedily upon them, on account of those sins that were general among them: and that if they did not repent, and reform their conduct upon the preaching of the gospel by the forerunner of the Messiah, the Messiah himself, and his apostles and other servants, he would proceed to the utter excision of their nation. And I will be a swift witness, &c.-It belongs to God alone to be both witness and judge; for he alone seeth all the actions of men, and need-terday, to-day, and for ever, as my name Jehovah eth not that any should testify against them, because he can himself convict them of their guilt, as having been present and looking on when their most secret sins were committed. Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, &c.-The sins enumerated in this verse were very prevalent in Malachi's time. Diviners, dreamers, and such as consulted oracles at the idols' temples, are reproved, Zech. x. 2; as are the false pretenders to prophecy, Nehemiah vi. 12-14. False swearing and oppression are complained of, Zech. v. 4; Nehemiah v. 3, &c. Their marrying strange women, and putting away their former wives to make room for them, was no better than adultery, and a breach of that solemn oath with which they had bound themselves, Nehemiah x. 29, 30. And the same sins seem to have been commonly practised before and at the time of Christ's appearance, till the destruction of Jerusalem. No nation was more given to charms, divinations, and fortune-telling, than the Jews were about that time, as Dr. Lightfoot has shown out of their own authors. Adulterers were then so common, that the Sanhedrim ordained that the trial of an adulteress, prescribed Num. v., should no longer be put in practice, as the same author observes out of the Talmud. Josephus informs us that magicians swarmed in Judea, under the government of Felix, and afterward. The denunciation here, that God would come near to judgment with all these, and be a swift witness against them, was fulfilled by that terrible destruction which was made of them by the Romans when Jerusalem was taken, and such havoc was made of the nation as never happened to any people before.

Verse 6. I am the Lord-Hebrew, Jehovah; I change not—In my nature or perfections there is no change, or shadow of turning, and therefore I have

Verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers, &c.-Here the discourse is again addressed to the wicked, and from hence to the end of verse 12 the people are reprehended for slighting the institutions of divine worship, and for withholding the legal tithes and oblations; are assured that they are under a curse for these violations of the law, and that an opposite conduct would bring on them the divine blessing. Ye are gone away from mine ordinances -Those which directed you respecting my worship, or your dealings one with another. Return unto me-Namely, by repentance, and amendment of life; and I will return to you-I will pardon and accept you, and bestow my blessings upon you. But ye said-Or, ye say, Wherein shall we return? -You persist to justify yourselves, and inquire what it is you are to repent of? as if your crimes were not most notorious and shameful. And your words, or at least your actions, show that you have no sense of, nor remorse for, your former sins, nor any purpose of forsaking them.

Verses 8, 9. Will a man rob God-Grotius reads, "Would any one dare to rob his judges as ye have robbed me?" the word rendered God sometimes meaning judges or magistrates. Some others render the clause, Is it right that God should be robbed (or defrauded) by man? Here God gives them an answer to their question in the foregoing verse, Wherein shall we return; or, repent and amend? But ye have robbed me-Notwithstanding it is so unjust and presumptuous to defraud God, that men

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blessing of corn, wine, and oil, and all other products of the earth. That there shall not be room, &c.— Or, till there be enough; or, till you shall say, There is enough. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes-All kinds of devourers, the locusts, the canker-worms, the caterpillars, and all other destructive insects, which, though they may be in incredible multitudes, yet, by a rebuke from God, they will be checked all at once, as if they were but one insect. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit-Neither shall your vines, or other fruit-trees, be blasted by blighting winds, so as to make their fruit fall off be

in general are afraid to do it, yet ye have done it. Do you ask, wherein you have robbed me? I an swer, In tithes and offerings-By this seems to be meant the first-fruits of their ground and cattle, and other offerings which were allotted to the priests,|| Deut. xviii. 4, out of which revenue they were to provide the daily sacrifices, and also maintain the Levites, who attended upon the service in the temple. Ye are cursed with a curse-Are greatly cursed, or, you lie under a heavy curse, and are likely still to do so, for the curse shall continue upon you while you continue in this your sinful course. For ye have robbed me, even this whole nation—fore it comes to maturity, but they shall carry it till This has not been the crime of a few only, but ye it be fully ripe. And all nations—All that are near have in general defrauded me, and evil shall come you; shall call you blessed—Shall style you a happy upon you for it. In a note on Rom. ii. 22, where people. For ye shall be a delightsome land-Your the apostle ranks sacrilege with idolatry, Grotius || country shall be again known by the name of the observes, "Non multum distat falsos deos colere et || pleasant land, as it was formerly called. The reviverum spoliare." There is very little difference val of religion in a land will make it delightsome between adoring false gods and robbing the true both to God and all good men. God.

Verses 13-15. Your words, &c.-"From this verse to the end of chap. iv. 3, the prophet expostulates with the wicked for their hard speeches; and declares that God will make a fearful distinction between them and the righteous."-Newcome. Have been stout against me-Your words have been blasphemous, and void of all reverence and duty. Ye have spoken injuriously of me, and have uttered such things as dishonour me. Ye have even arraigned my proceedings, and spoken against them. Yet ye say, What have we spoken, &c.-This is to the same purport as their words in verse 8, and some other foregoing verses. They impudently deny the charge, therefore the prophet renews it against them in the following words; Ye have said-If not with your lips, yet at least in your hearts; It is vain to serve God-We receive no advantage from it, it is of no use to us. That they should talk thus impious

Verses 10-12. Bring ye all the tithes-Make a punctual and full payment of all tithes: and in this instance make good your solemn engagement with Nehemiah, mentioned chap. x. 29. Into the storehouse-This was one or more large rooms built on purpose for this use; that there may be meat-That there may be provision for the daily sacrifices, and for the maintenance of my ministers, the priests and Levites, who attend upon the service of my temple. || And prove me now herewith-Make the experiment in this particular. If I will not open you the windows of heaven, &c.-There is now a scarcity of the fruits of the earth, and a dearth, but take the advice which I give you, and try whether your plenty will not be in proportion to the free-will wherewith you bring in your tithes and offerings; and whether I will not immediately send you plentiful showers of rain, whereby the earth shall bring forth its fruit inly in the times of Zerubbabel, when Malachi uttered great abundance. The dearth here spoken of is men- these reproofs and exhortations, is not probable; but tioned Neh. v. 3: compare 2 Chron. xxxi. 10. To God, who sees into the hearts of men, saw, lurking open the windows of heaven is a proverbial speech, in their hearts, the seeds of that impiety which expressing God's showering down plenty, or giving || broke out in the following age. And what profit is it great abundance of the fruits of the earth; (see 2 -What benefit is it of to us; that we have kept his Kings vii. 2;) as shutting up heaven denotes scarci- || ordinance-That we have attended upon the instituty, Deut. xi. 17; Hag. i. 10, 11. And pour out a tions of his worship, and have governed our lives acblessing-First of rain to water the earth, next acording to his laws? And that we have walked

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16 Then they that feared the LORD 18 Then shall ye return and discern be'spake often one to another: and the LORD tween the righteous and the wicked, between hearkened, and heard it: and a book of re-him that serveth God and him that serveth him membrance was written before him for them

Heb. in black. - Psa. lxxiii. 12; Chap. ii. 17.——— Heb. are built. d Psalm xcv. 9. Psalm lxvi. 16; Chap. iv. 2. 'Heb. iii. 13.- Psa. lvi. 8; Isa. lav. 6; Rev. xx. 12.

mournfully before the Lord-Have humbled ourselves before him with fasting and prayer, sackcloth || and ashes. Their beholding the prosperity of the wicked made them conclude, that it was to no pur- || pose to walk according to the laws of God, or to confess their offences and express their sorrow for them. And, or rather, but, or therefore, now we call the proud happy-Those who behave themselves arrogantly against God, the proud contemners of his law. We can now do no less than think them happiest who do not concern themselves about the observance of God's laws, but live according to their pleasure, and do every thing that their inclination or profit prompts them to do, without any fear of God's calling them to an account for it. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up-Are the flourishing ones; are raised to prosperity, as buildings are to their height. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered-Yea, they who, one would have supposed, should have wearied out God's patience with their provocations, who have seemed to act as if they tried to provoke him, even these men escape those dangers and calamities which other men are involved in. Those who spake thus seem to have expected an exact distribution of temporal rewards and punishments to be made to good and bad men in this life.

Ver. 16, 17. Then-When contempt of God was grown to such a height; they that feared the Lord -Those that were truly religious, that knew God's judgments to be a great deep, and that his ways are as high above our ways as heaven is above the earth; spake often one to another-Conversed together about spiritual things the more frequently: for though it is not said what was the subject of their conversation with each other, yet we have reason to believe it was as good concerning God and his providence as the discourse of the wicked was evil. They spake what was right concerning God's justice and mercy, his holiness, forbearance, and long-suffering, his wisdom and equity in his government of the world in general, and of his church and the members of it in particular. And by their pious discourse they endeavoured to arm cach other against the impressions which such wicked suggestions as those above mentioned might otherwise have made upon their minds; and to confirm one another in piety

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and virtue. And the Lord hearkened and heard— Took a special notice of what these pious persons did and said. And a book of remembrance was written-It was as safely laid up in his memory as if it had been entered into a register, in order to be produced at the day of judgment to their praise and honour: see the margin. The words are a beautiful allusion to the records kept by kings, Esth. vi. 1. And they shall be mine-It shall appear how dear they are to me, when the time comes in which I shall separate the precious from the vile, the vessels of honour from those of dishonour, 2 Tim. ii. 20. In the day of the execution of my judgments they shall be distinguished and preserved safe, as choice jewels are wont to be. And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son, &c.-They shall be spared, pitied, and loved, and I will preserve them from those calamities which shall fall upon the wicked and unbelieving, with the same tenderness which a father shows to a dutiful son. The period especially referred to may be the Roman war under Titus. When God should utterly cut off the Jewish Church and nation for their infidelity, the remnant among them, that should be found to believe his word, and having waited for the Messiah, the consolation of Israel, should welcome him when he came; these, being admitted into the Christian Church, should become a peculiar people to God, and God would take care of them, that they should not perish with the unbelievers, but that they should be hid in the day of the Lord's anger against that nation. These pious ones should have all the glorious privileges of God's Israel appropriated to them, and centring in them. They should be a peculiar treasure unto him, when the rest were rejected; should be vessels of mercy and honour when the rest should be made vessels of wrath and dishonour. This, however, is very applicable to all the faithful people of God, and the distinction he will put between them and others, in the great day of final accounts.

Verse 18. Then shall ye-Ye contemners of God and religion; return and discern-See clearly, and distinguish perfectly; between the righteous and the wicked-Between the characters and the portion of the truly righteous, and of those who are not so. How different the lot is, and to all eternity will be, between the former and the latter; between him that

Destruction of the

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serveth God-And makes conscience of his duty to || will see to your everlasting satisfaction the differhim, and him that serveth him not-But puts con- ence between the holy and the profane, the godly tempt upon his service. You that now speak against and the ungodly. Then shall ye return-That is, God, as making no difference between the good and change your minds, and come to a right understandbad, and therefore say, It is vain to serve him, verse ing of this most important matter. For then every 14, you shall be made to see your error: and you || man's character will be both perfected and perfectly that speak for God, but know not what to say to this, discovered; and every man appear in his true cothat there seems to be one event to the righteous || lours; and every man's condition, likewise, will be and the wicked, and that all things come alike to all, || both perfectly happy or miserable, without mixture will then have the matter set in a true light, and or alloy, and everlastingly determined.

CHAPTER IV.

In this chapter, which is a continuation of the discourse in the preceding, we have, (1,) A prediction of the general destruction of the Jewish nation, as a type and emblem of the final destruction of all the impenitent and unbelieving at the time of the general judgment and final conflagration of the heaven and the earth, 1. (2) The benefit which such as believed on the Messiah, at his coming, and became his subjects and servants among the Jews, should enjoy, while their unbelieving countrymen were given up to destruction: a figure of the final salvation of the righteous at the time of Christ's second coming, 2, 3. (3,) A solemn charge given to the Jews, in the mean time, strictly to observe the law of Moses till the Messiah should appear, 4. (4,) A promise of a further discovery of God's will by Elijah the prophet, that is, John the Baptist, the harbinger of the Messiah, whose ministry, it is foretold, should produce a happy effect in the reformation of many, both young and old, 5, 6.

sume them. It shall leave them neither root nor branch-A proverbial expression for utter destruction, and signifying, as applied to the unbelieving Jews, that both they and their families should be utterly destroyed.

Verse 2. But unto you that fear my name-So they are described, chap. iii. 16, whose names were written in the book of remembrance; who loved the law of their God, and kept it; who believed its promises, and rejoiced in expectation of the blessings promised; who believed his threatenings and trembled at them, and who walked humbly with their God; shall the Sun of righteousness arise-Christ, who is fitly compared to the sun, being the fountain of light and vital heat to his church: elsewhere called the day-spring from on high, Luke i. 78, and

Verse 1. For behold the day cometh-Though it|| may appear to be at a distance from you, yet it is coming, and will soon overtake and overwhelm you: even that great and terrible day of the Lord, as it is called Joel ii. 31. That shall burn as an ovenGod is described as a consuming fire, when he comes to execute his judgments, Deut. iv. 24, and the prediction here was remarkably verified when, upon the taking of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by the Roman army under Titus, they were both destroyed by such flames as no human power could quench. The refiner's fire, mentioned chap. iii. 2,|| now became unspeakably more dreadful, raging everywhere through the city and temple, and most fiercely where the arched roofs made it double itself || and infold flames within flames: by which terrible || the east, or sun-rising, for so the word rendered destruction, and the judgments accompanying it, an branch, Zech. iii. 8, is translated by the Chaldee and end was put to the whole state of the Jews: an awful LXX.: see the note there, and on Isa. lx. 1, 2. Thus image this of the conflagration of the heavens and the church is described, Rev. xii. 1, as clothed with the earth, and the final judgment of the last day on the sun, that is, adorned with graces communithe whole human race. And all the proud-Such || cated to her from Christ. He is termed the Sun of especially as those spoken of chap. iii. 15. And all RIGHTEOUSNESS, not only because he is the end of the that do wickedly-All impenitent sinners, of what-law for righteousness, that is, for justification, ever kind, whether heathen, Jews, or Christians, so sanctification, and practical obedience, to believers, called, even all that do not obey the truth, whether and is made of God unto them righteousness, but manifested by God's works or his word, but obey because he is the medium and source of the divine unrighteousness, shall be as stubble-Shall perish mercy and benignity to them, as the word rendered by these awful judgments. And the day that cometh || righteousness also signifies. He is said to arise with shall burn them up-Shall totally and speedily con- || healing in his wings, because his doctrine and media

tion, with the spirit of truth and grace, which he has ones, who through their faith should escape the deprocured for, and confers upon, his true followers, re- struction in which the unbelievers were involved, moves men's ignorance and errors, sins and miseries, should return to the place where the city stood, and heals all the diseases of their fallen souls, commu- they would there tread upon the ashes of the wicked, nicating to them spiritual health and strength, with who were destroyed in the destruction of the city, delight and joy, safety and security, and restoring and many of them burned to ashes in the flames by and regulating all their faculties and powers. And which it was consumed. According to Eusebius, a ye shall go forth-That is, as the words are thought Christian Church was erected in a town called Ælia, primarily to signify, out of the city of Jerusalem built upon the ruins of Jerusalem, of which no less before the fatal siege begin, being warned by Christ than thirteen persons of Jewish parentage were so to do, (see Matt. xxiv. 15-18; Luke xxi. 20, 21,) bishops. So that the faithful among the Jewish and thereby escaping those dreadful calamities, in nation did literally tread the ashes of the wicked which those who stayed in the city were involved. || under the soles of their feet. But the general sense Indeed, those who had faith in Christ's predictions, of the expression no doubt is, that the great, the unapprehending, from the circumstances of things, the speakable superiority of the righteous over the destruction of the city to be near at hand, quitted it wicked, should be evident to themselves and all before it was invested by the Romans. And grow || men, in the distinction which should be made in up-In strength, vigour, and spiritual stature; as their favour, first, in the calamities which would calves of the stall-Where they are safely guarded, come on the Jewish nation, and secondly, and espeand well ordered and provided for. This shall be|| cially, in that day when the righteous shall rise to your state when the rest of your nation shall be con- || everlasting life, and the wicked to shame and eversumed with divers kinds of death. Ye shall be in a lasting contempt. good condition through your faith in the Redeemer, which shall be to you the evidence of things not seen; through the peace which you shall have with God, and in your own minds; through the love of God shed abroad in your hearts, and communion with him; and through the well-grounded and lively hopes with which you shall be inspired of the like deliverance in the judgment of the last day.

Verse 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked"Ye shall know that they are wholly subdued."Newcome. Houbigant thinks this "refers to the miracles of the rising church, by which the wicked were compelled to yield, and submit themselves; for there is no other dominion under which they could be held by Christians." There was a time when the wicked trode them down, and said to their souls, Bow down that we may go over; but the day will come that will make them victorious over all their enemies, and they, as it were, shall tread down the wicked; for, being made Christ's footstool, Psa. cx. 1, they are also made theirs, and shall come and worship before the feet of the church, Rev. iii. 9. "When believers, by faith, overcome the world; when they suppress their corrupt appetites and passions; and when the God of peace bruises Satan under their feet, then they indeed tread down the wicked."—Henry. For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet-The meaning of this is thought by some to be, that when these believing ||

Verse 4. Remember ye the law of Moses-Ye are not now to expect any succession of prophets for the time to come, nor any prophet whatever, till the forerunner of the Messiah appears: your chief care, therefore, till that time, must be to attend upon the institutions, and to obey the precepts, which Moses has given to all Israel in his law; particularly in that part of it which was delivered to him by God with an audible voice from mount Horeb: see Exod. xix. 9; Deut. iv. 10. This your lawgiver spake plainly of the Messiah, instructed you to expect his coming, and solemnly charged you to believe his doctrines and obey his commands, when he should come, threatening all those who did not with inevitable destruction. The words law, statutes, and judgments, are promiscuously used to signify the same thing, as appears from the greater part of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm.

Verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet |--The first prophet that I shall send to you, after him who now speaks to you, will be Elijah the messenger, that shall go before the Messiah to prepare his way. In him the spirit of prophecy shall be revived; and he shall be another Elijah for zeal, for courage, austerity of life, and labour for reformation. "It was the universal opinion in Christ's time, received by the learned and unlearned, the governors and the common people, that Elijah should usher in the Messiah, and anoint him; all expected that Elijah