MALACHIAS, whose name signifies The Angel of the Lord, was contemporary with NEHEMIAS, and by some is believed to have been the same person as ESDRAS. He was the last of the prophets, in the order of time, and flourished about four hundred years before Christ. He foretells the coming of Christ; the reprobation of the Jews and their sacrifices; and the calling of the Gentiles, who shall offer up to God in every place an acceptable sacrifice.

 

 

 

 

 

[2] I have loved Jacob: I have preferred his posterity, to make them my chosen people, and to lead them with my blessings, without any merit on their part, and though they have been always ungrateful; whilst I have rejected Esau, and executed severe judgments upon his posterity. Not that God punished Esau, or his posterity, beyond their desert: but that by his free election and grace he loved Jacob, and favoured his posterity above their deserts. See the annotations upon Rom. 9.

 

[11] A clean oblation: Viz., the precious body and blood of Christ in the eucharistic sacrifice.

[13] Behold of our labour: You pretended labour and weariness, when you brought your offering; and so made it of no value, by offering it with an evil mind. Moreover, what you offered was both defective in itself, and gotten by rapine and extortion.

 

Chapter 2

[3] I will cast the shoulder to you: I will cast away the shoulder, which in the law was appointed to be your portion, and fling it at you in my anger: and will reject both you and your festivals like dung.

[7] The angel: Viz., the minister and messenger.

[13] With tears: Viz., by occasion of your wives, whom you have put away: and who came to weep and lament before the altar.

[16] Iniquity shall cover his garment: Viz., of every man that putteth away his wife without just cause; notwithstanding that God permitted it in the law, to prevent the evil of murder.

 

Chapter 3

[1] My angel: Viz., John the Baptist, the messenger of God, and forerunner of Christ.

 

Chapter 4

[6] He shall turn the heart: By bringing over the Jews to the faith of Christ, he shall reconcile them to their fathers, viz., the partiarchs and prophets; whose hearts for many ages have been turned away from them, because of their refusing to believe in Christ.-- Ibid.

[6] With anathema: In the Hebrew, Cherem, that is, with utter destruction.