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Second speech: the treachery of priests and people. 1–9. Levi before and now. 10–16. Violation of fathers' covenants in relation to marriages and divorces. (Mal.2:1-9.) If already in the first speech the prophet denounced, first of all, the priests for their negligence in relation to Divine services, then here he directly threatens the entire sacred Levitical order with the curse of God for the fact that it dishonors the name of Jehovah, instead of, as the ancestors of today’s priests did, teaching the people to honor this great name. Since the priests, by allowing violations of the Liturgical regulations, sought popularity among the people, God announces to them that the result that will come from such actions will be completely opposite to what the priests expected: they will be subjected to complete contempt from the people. Mal.2:1–2. So for you, priests, this commandment is: If you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give glory to My name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessings, and I am already cursing it, because you do not want to put your heart to it. The Lord gives the priests, due to their careless attitude to their duties, a commandment, i.e., a definition or decision of the following content: either they must correct themselves, or, otherwise, accept punishment from God. The punishment itself will consist of the curse that God sends on them. The curse in Holy Scripture refers to various misfortunes (cf. Deut. 28.20). Moreover, God will curse even the blessings of the priests. They, therefore, with their blessings will bring only misfortunes and misfortunes to those being blessed (about priestly blessing, see Numbers 6.23–27). Even now the Lord began to do this with priestly blessings. Mal.2:3. Behold, I will take away your shoulder, and I will scatter the dung on your faces, the dung of your festival sacrifices, and they will throw you out with it. The Russian text follows the LXX translation here: “I will take your shoulder away.” LXX, according to the interpretation of Blessed. Jerome, here meant the shoulder of a sacrificial animal, which, according to the law, was supposed to be received by the priest who made the sacrifice. Some of the new translators see here a designation of the shoulder or muscle of a priest, from whom God Himself will cut this muscle and through this will deprive the priest of the opportunity to perform sacrifices. According to the Masoretic text, instead of the word “shoulder”, the word “seed” is read here. The meaning of the Masoretic reading is that God will strike the priests with deprivation of the power to give birth to children. – The droppings that lay in masses in the yard where the animals designated for sacrifice on holidays stood, God will throw on the faces of the priests and they will be taken out along with this droppings to a landfill. Mal.2:4. And you will know that I gave this commandment to preserve My covenant with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. The Russian translation does not quite accurately convey the idea. The best reading is: “and you will know that I gave you this commandment so that it would be my covenant with Levi” (Orelli, Tikhomirov, etc.). When the curses that God just spoke about fall on the priests, they will know, that is, they will finally understand that Jehovah has really decided that instead of blessings he will send them all sorts of misfortunes - this will be, as it were, His covenant with the priests, that is, an exact and immutable agreement. - “Levi” - the entire tribe of Levi, in which the priests, descendants of Aaron, constituted the best part. Mal.2:5. My covenant with him was a covenant of life and peace, and I gave it to him for fear, and he feared Me and stood in awe of My name. Previously, Jehovah dealt differently with the tribe of Levi and, in particular, with the priests. He sent Levi life and peace, or, in other words, a peaceful, happy life, and Levi, for his part, paid Jehovah for this with boundless reverence (fear). Mal.2:6. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his tongue; He walked with Me in peace and righteousness and turned many away from sin. Previously, the law of truth was constantly in the mouth of Levi. This means that the priests, in their demands addressed to the sacrificers, were guided only by the requirements of the Mosaic Law, without deviating from them one iota. That untruth, those unfounded apologies that the priests have now invented to justify those who bring worthless sacrifices, were not yet expressed by the altar servers in those distant times. Levi walked, that is, lived calmly (in peace), because he lived in truth, as required by the law of Jehovah. He turned many away from sin - he did not act like today’s priests, who with their excessive condescension lead many to the idea of ​​​​deceiving God by bringing a worthless animal instead of a blameless one (cf. Mal 1.14). Mal.2:7. For the mouth of the priest shall keep knowledge, and the law shall be sought at his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. This explains why Levi should have been a beneficial influence on the common Israelites. To him belongs the knowledge of the law - of course, mainly in its instructions about Divine services. He is a messenger announcing to people the will of God contained in the law of Moses, just as the prophet announced to people the will of God, which was revealed to him personally. From whom will the people learn, if not from the priest? Mal.2:8–9. But you have turned away from this path, you have served as a stumbling block for many in the law, you have destroyed the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts: For this reason I will make you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you do not keep My ways and show partiality in the works of the law. Modern priests, instead of teaching the people the true understanding and fulfillment of the law of Moses, tempt them to break this law with various excuses (see Mal 1:13). By this they destroy Levi’s covenant with God (see v. 5), and God, instead of favoring them, will deprive them of all authority in the eyes of the people: the people will stop turning to them for teaching. - “You show partiality in business.” Here the prophet points to another vice of the priests - their partiality in deciding court cases, in the decision of which the priests took part according to the law (cf. Deut. 19.17). (Mal.2:10-16.) In the second part of the second speech, the prophet denounces the Jews for, firstly, marrying pagans and, secondly, for their tendency to dissolve their marriages, which they entered into with their fellow tribesmen. Mal.2:10. Don't we all have one Father? Didn't God alone create us? Why do we act treacherously against each other, thereby violating the covenant of our fathers? The Prophet reminds the Jews that they all have one Father - God (cf. Mal 1.6) and are all, therefore, brothers among themselves. It is unusual for brothers to act treacherously and treacherously in relation to each other. They must support each other and jointly fulfill the “covenant of the fathers,” that is, the Law of Moses given to the fathers. If some strictly implement this law, while others do not follow it, they will completely destroy the unity of the nation. Mal.2:11. Judah acts treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judas disgraced the holy thing of the Lord, which he loved, and married the daughter of a foreign god. An example of such a violation of the law is the marriage of Jews to pagan women, which is strictly prohibited by law (Exodus 34.11–16). Israel is not the kingdom of Israel, which no longer existed then, but the designation of the Jewish people in general, as it was represented by the Jerusalem community. - “Holiness to the Lord” - that is, that “covenant of the fathers”, which was mentioned above (v. 10). - “Daughters of a foreign god”. Since the Jews were the sons of Jehovah, the pagans appear to the prophet as daughters of also a god, but of another, not a Jewish one (cf. Deut. 32.19; Num. 21.29). Mal.2:12. The one who does this, the Lord will destroy from the tents of Jacob the one who watches the watch and answers, and the one who sacrifices to the Lord of hosts. In the tents of such lawbreakers, or in the house, the Lord will destroy all the inhabitants who are only able to give a voice (those who are on guard and those who answer are one and the same person, “a man is alive,” as we used to say in ancient times in Rus'). Especially mentioned is the one who brings sacrifice to the Lord, that is, the priest. And the priests were known to be guilty of such violation of the law (1 Ezra 10:18–19). Mal.2:13. And this is also what you do: you cause the altar of the Lord to be watered with tears, with sobbing and crying, so that He no longer regards the offering and does not accept the propitiatory sacrifice from your hands. As can be seen from the next verse, the prophet is referring here to the treacherous attitude of Jewish husbands towards their wives. Husbands reject their wives, and they go to send their complaints to the altar of Jehovah 1, complaining about the offense they have caused to Jehovah. Jehovah, for his part, punishes treacherous husbands by ceasing to accept sacrifices from them. Mal.2:14. You say: “for what?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you acted treacherously, while she is your friend and your lawful wife. The Lord is angry with such husbands especially because He was a witness to the vows that were given by the spouses. This may mean either that marriages were concluded in the presence of the invisibly present Jehovah (cf. Gen. 31.50), or that initially God established monogamy, creating only one wife for Adam, thereby showing that he should never have divorced her (Gen. 2.24). - “The wife of youth” - that is, you experienced with her the best time of your life - youth and, therefore, you should always love and pity her. Mal.2:15. But didn’t one do the same, and there was an excellent spirit in him? what did this one do? he wanted to receive offspring from God. Therefore, take care of your spirit, and let no one act treacherously against the wife of his youth. The first question belongs to the Jews accused of breaking the law. They point the prophet to “one,” that is, to Abraham, who also, valuing only his seed, which he saw in the person of Isaac, expelled his concubine Hagar with his son, Ishmael. But Abraham was a man of outstanding moral qualities (he had an excellent spirit!). The prophet also answers this question with the question: what did this “one” do? He did this not out of any personal selfish calculations and was not guided by sensual attraction, but wanted to get or, more correctly, keep Isaac, to whom Ishmael was already beginning to become dangerous (Gen. 21.9). Therefore, Jews must beware of the wrath of God (“take care of your spirit,” that is, your life) and not divorce their wives. Mal.2:16. If you hate her, let her go, says the Lord God of Israel; offense will cover his garment, says the Lord of hosts; Therefore take heed to your spirit and do not act treacherously. The Russian translation of this verse is unclear. Tikhomirov gives the following translation: “For I hate divorce, says Jehovah, the God of Israel, and the one who covers his clothes with offense, says Jehovah of hosts. Therefore, take care of your spirit and do not act treacherously.” The idea behind this translation is quite clear. God cannot approve of divorce, because the person divorcing commits an obvious sin (as if he were all dressed up in resentment). The severity of the prophet Malachi in dealing with the issue of mixed marriages and divorce is remarkable. The Law of Moses prohibited marriages only with Canaanite women (Exodus 34.16; Deut. 7.3), and Malachi prohibits marriages with foreign women in general. In this he agrees with Ezra and Nehemiah (1 Ezra 9:2; Neh. 13.23). The new, post-exilic Jewish community, naturally, had to more strictly guard its theocratic isolation so as not to melt into paganism. Likewise, Malachi reinforces the prohibition of the Mosaic Law in relation to divorce. Moses allowed divorce under certain conditions (Deut. 24.1), and Malachi completely denies the right to divorce, in this case approaching the commandment of Christ (Mt. 19.8–9). Mal.2:17. You anger the Lord with your words and say: “How do we anger Him?” By saying: “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in such,” or: “Where is the God of justice?” This contains the introduction to the next, third, speech. Seeing the well-being of people who were not embarrassed by demands and morality - perhaps some Jewish rich people - the Jews began to say that God favors the wicked, that Divine justice is a pure fiction. By this they angered God—more precisely: they annoyed God, challenging Him to show His justice. Zerubbabel's church did not yet have a special courtyard for women You might be interested in: