Malachi 1

Malachi 1:1

Spoken lies - They belied his corrections as if not deserved; they belied the good done, as if too little, or not done by God, but by their idol.

Malachi 1:2

They assembled - In the houses of their idols.

Malachi 1:3

Bound - As a surgeon binds up a weak member, or a broken one; so did God for Ephraim, when the Syrians and other enemies had broken their arms. Imagine mischief - They devise mischief against my prophets, and let loose the reins to all impieties.

Malachi 1:4

Not to the most high - What shew soever of repentance was among them, yet they never throughly repented. A deceitful bow - Tho’ they seemed bent for, and aiming at the mark, yet like a weak bow they carried not the arrow home, and like a false bow they never carried it strait toward the mark. The rage of their tongue - Against God, his prophets and providence. Their derision - They shall be upbraided with this.

Malachi 1:6

Set the trumpet - The Lord here commands the prophet to publish, as by sound of trumpet, that which God will bring upon apostate Israel. He - The king of Assyria. As an eagle - Swift, hungry, surmounting all difficulties. House of the Lord - The family of Israel, the Israelites church.

Malachi 1:7

Shall cry - But not sincerely.

Malachi 1:9

They - Israel. Kings - Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hosea. Not by me - Not by my direction. Knew it not - Did not approve of it.

Malachi 1:10

Thy calf - The chief idol set up in Samaria. Cast thee off - Hath provoked God to cast thee off. Against them - Idols, and idol worshippers. How long - How long will it be, ere they repent and reform?

Malachi 1:11

From Israel - By their invention. It - Both the idol and the worshippers of it.

Malachi 1:12

Sown the wind - A proverbial speech to denote lost labour. Whirlwind - A tempest, which destroyeth all that is in its way; an emblem of the wrath of God. No stalk - All your dependance on idols, and foreign assistance, will be as seed that bear neither stalk nor bud. No meal - Or suppose it produced stalk and bud, yet the bud shall be blasted, and never yield meal.

Malachi 1:14

Gone up - Israel is like a wild ass. A wild ass - Stubborn, wild, untamed. Alone - Solitary, where is no path or tract; so they were in their captivity.