Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
God will purge the people of their sins, reward them if they act righteously, and send Elijah to announce the Day of the Lord.

II. Photo
God’s messenger will purge the people of their sins: “He shall act like a smelter and purger of silver; and he shall purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they shall present offerings in righteousness.” (v. 3)

III. Select Verses
1-3: Behold, I am sending My messenger to clear the way before Me, and the Lord whom you seek shall come to His Temple suddenly. As for the angel of the covenant that you desire, he is already coming. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can hold out when he appears? For he is like a smelter’s fire and like fuller’s lye. He shall act like a smelter and purger of silver; and he shall purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they shall present offerings in righteousness.
8: Ought man to defraud God? Yet you are defrauding Me. And you ask, “How have we been defrauding You?” In tithe and contribution.
10: Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, and let there be food in My House, and thus put Me to the test — said the LORD of Hosts. I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you
13-15: You have spoken hard words against Me — said the LORD. But you ask, “What have we been saying among ourselves against You?” You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His charge and walking in abject awe of the LORD of Hosts? And so, we account the arrogant happy: they have indeed done evil and endured; they have indeed dared God and escaped.”
22: Be mindful of the Teaching of My servant Moses, whom I charged at Horeb with laws and rules for all Israel.
23: Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD.

IV. Outline
1. Announcement: God’s messenger is coming
2-3. The messenger will purge the people
4. The people will return to days of old
5. God will purge the people
6-7a. God urges the people to return to him
7b-12. God urges the people to bring the tithe
13-15. A common belief: serving God is worthless
16-21. God will repay those who worship him
22. Exhortation regarding Moses’ law
23-24. Elijah will come before the Day of the Lord

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Smith, Ralph L. “Micah – Malachi” World Biblical Commentary v. 32 (Word Books: 1984).
Photo taken from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newton/images/alch-pouringhotliquid-l.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
God denounces the priests for their behavior and criticizes the people for national infidelity.

II. Photo
A priest has a lofty role: “For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, and men seek rulings from his mouth.” (v. 7a)

III. Select Verses
1-2a: And now, O priests, this charge is for you: Unless you obey and unless you lay it to heart, and do honor to My name — said the LORD of Hosts — I will send a curse and turn your blessings into curses.
4-7:  Know, then, that I have sent this charge to you that My covenant with Levi may endure — said the LORD of Hosts. I had with him a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave to him, and of reverence, which he showed Me. For he stood in awe of My name. Proper rulings were in his mouth, And nothing perverse was on his lips; He served Me with complete loyalty And held the many back from iniquity. For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, And men seek rulings from his mouth; For he is a messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
11-12: Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned what is holy to the LORD — what He desires — and espoused daughters of alien gods.  May the LORD leave to him who does this no descendants dwelling in the tents of Jacob and presenting offerings to the LORD of Hosts.
13: And this you do as well: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, weeping, and moaning, so that He refuses to regard the oblation any more and to accept what you offer.

IV. Outline
1-3. God demands respect from the priests
4-5. The covenant with Levi
6-7. The righteousness of the priests
8-9. The priests have changed their ways
10-12. The people have betrayed each other and the temple
13-17. The people have betrayed and angered God

V. Comment
Chapter 2 can be broken into two sections: vv. 1-9 describe the covenant of the priests, and vv. 10-17 describe the people’s betrayal. Verse 4 mentions the “covenant of Levi” – what exactly was this covenant? Collins writes: “There is no account of such a covenant in the Hebrew Bible. Its existence may have been inferred from the blessing of Levi in Deut 33:9-11, which says that the Levites ‘observed your word, and kept your covenant.’ That passage goes on to speak of the teaching role of the Levites, as does Mal 2:6. There is a perpetual covenant with Phinehas in Numbers 25. Jeremiah 33:21 speaks of ‘my covenant with my ministers the Levites,’ which cannot be broken, just like the covenant with David. Nehemiah 13:29 refers to the ‘covenant of the priests and the Levites.’ From the last two passages it seems that by the Persian period there was believed to be a covenant with Levi, or the Levites, even if it was not explicitly narrated in the Hebrew Bible. Malachi is insistent that this is a conditional covenant that requires reverence and fidelity on the part of the priests. Here again he is not questioning the importance of the priesthood or the sacrificial cult, but he is holding them to a highere standard than was observed in Jersualem in his time.” (416-417)

In regards to the second section of this chapter, Collins writes: “[Verses] 2:10-16 is the most difficult passage in Malachi, and one of the most difficult in all the Hebrew Bible… Judah, we are told, has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, and ‘married the daughter of a foreign god.’ Some scholars take ‘the daughter of a foreign god’ to be a goddess. The mention of foreign god implies some involvement in pagan worship. The usual view of commentators is that the passage refers to marriage with foreign women, a problem that figures prominently in the book of Ezra. Those who married foreign women were likely to gives some recognition to the religious practices of their wives (cf. the story of Solomon in 1 Kgs 11:1-8). IT is clear from the passage that the offenders had not abandoned the worship of [the Lord] but were engaging in syncretistic, or mixed, worship.” (417)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Smith, Ralph L. “Micah – Malachi” World Biblical Commentary v. 32 (Word Books: 1984).
Photo taken from http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/images/CKJ60003.JPG

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
God proclaims his favoritism for Jacob (Israel) over Esau (Edom) and lambastes the people for bringing unfit sacrifices.

II. Photo
God rejects Esau: “I have made his hills a desolation, his territory a home for the jackals of the desert.” (v. 3b)

III. Select Verses
2-3: I have shown you love, said the LORD. But you ask, “How have You shown us love?” After all — declares the LORD — Esau is Jacob’s brother; yet I have accepted Jacob and have rejected Esau. I have made his hills a desolation, his territory a home for beasts of the desert.
6-8: A son should honor his father, and a slave his master. Now if I am a father, where is the honor due Me? And if I am a master, where is the reverence due Me? — said the LORD of Hosts to you, O priests who scorn My name. But you ask, “How have we scorned Your name?” You offer defiled food on My altar. But you ask, “How have we defiled You?” By saying, “The table of the LORD can be treated with scorn.” When you present a blind animal for sacrifice — it doesn’t matter! When you present a lame or sick one — it doesn’t matter! Just offer it to your governor: Will he accept you? Will he show you favor? — said the LORD of Hosts.
14: A curse on the cheat who has an [unblemished] male in his flock, but for his vow sacrifices a blemished animal to the LORD! For I am a great King — said the LORD of Hosts — and My name is revered among the nations.

IV. Outline
1. Introduction
2-5. God blesses Jacob and curses Esau
6-14. Diatribe for bringing unfit sacrifices

V. Comment
There is a debate whether Malachi, the twelfth book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, was originally conceived as a discrete book. This debate stems from the fact that its introductory phrase, “A pronouncement: The word of the Lord to Israel,” only occurs three times in the Hebrew Bible, and the other two are at the end of the previous book (Zechariah 9:1, 12:1). Thus, according to some scholars, there were three anonymous oracles appended to the book of Zechariah, and Malachi was the last of them.

What about the name “Malachi”? There is no conclusive evidence here either. Andrew Hill writes: “As a proper name Malachi may be translated “my messenger” or “my angel” (cf. Zech 1:9, 11), though context militates against the latter. Several commentators have espoused the view that Malachi is indeed a proper name. Still others suggest that the name is a shortened form of Malachiah, meaning “Yah(weh) is my messenger” or “Yah(weh) is an angel.” While highly irregular, this is not impossible given the unusual revelatory ministry of the angel of the Lord in the OT (cf. Judg 13:18; 1 Chr 21:18; Zech 1:11; 3:5; 12:8).“” (5:477)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hill, Andrew. “Malachi, Book of” Anchor Bible Dictionary, 5:477.
Smith, Ralph L. “Micah – Malachi” World Biblical Commentary v. 32 (Word Books: 1984).
Photo taken from http://cdn.fotocommunity.com/Namibia/Etosha/Jackals-in-Love-a19160704.jpg