Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 30: Zechariah, Malachai, tr. by John King, [1847-50], at sacred-texts.com
1 The burden of the word of Jehovah on Israel, by Malachi, —
2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah; But ye have said, In what hast thou loved us? Was not Esau a brother to Jacob? saith Jehovah;
3 Yet I loved Jacob, and Esau I hated: And I have set his mountains a waste And his heritage for the serpents of the desert.
4 If Edom shall say, “We have been diminished, But we shall return and build houses;” Yet thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — “They shall build, but I will pull down;” And they shall be called, “The border of ungodliness,” And, “The people with whom Jehovah is angry forever:”
5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, — Magnified let Jehovah be throughout the border of Israel.
6 A son honours his father, and a servant his master: If then I be a father, where is my honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith Jehovah of hosts to you, priests, Who despise my name: But ye have said, In what have we despised thy name?
7 Ye offer on my altar polluted bread: Ye have also said, By what have we polluted thee? When ye say, The table of Jehovah, It is contemptible.
8 When ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! And when the lame and the sick ye offer, it is no evil! Offer it now I pray to thy governor; Will he be pleased with thee, or accept Thy person, saith Jehovah of hosts?
9 And now I pray entreat the favour of God! And merciful will he be to us! By your hand has this been done; Will he regard your persons? Saith Jehovah of hosts.
10 Who is there even among you who closes the doors? And do ye not kindle my altar in vain? I delight not in you saith Jehovah of hosts, And an offering I will not receive from your hand.
11 Verily, from the rising of the sun to its setting Great shall be my name among the nations. And in every place incense shall be offered To my name, and a pure offering; For great shall be my name among the nations, Saith Jehovah of hosts.
12 But ye have profaned it by saying, The table of Jehovah is polluted, Its provision is his contemptible food. (505)
13 Ye have also said, Behold weariness? And ye have snuffed at it, saith Jehovah of hosts; And offered the torn and the lame and the sick, And brought an oblation! Shall I accept this from your hand, Saith Jehovah? (508)
14 But cursed be the deceitful, Who, having in his flock a male, Vows and offers what is corrupt to Jehovah For a great king am I, Saith Jehovah of hosts, And my name is terrible among the nations.
1 And not to you is this command, O priests;
2 If ye will not hear not lay it to heart, To give glory to my name, Saith Jehovah of hosts, I will send on you a curse, And will curse your blessings; Yea, I have cursed them, Because ye lay it not to heart.
3 Behold, I will destroy your seed And scatter dung on your faces, The dung of your solemn feasts; And it shall take you to itself: And ye shall know,
4 That I have sent to you this command, That my covenant may be with Levi, Saith Jehovah of hosts.
5 My covenant with him was that of life and peace; And I gave him fear, and he feared me, And before my name he was humble; (524)
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, And iniquity was not found in his lips; In peace and uprightness he walked before me, And many he restored from iniquity.
7 Verily the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, And the law should they seek from his mouth, For the messenger of Jehovah of hosts is he:
8 But ye have departed from the way, To stumble have ye made many in the law; Ye have therefore violated the covenant of Levi, Saith Jehovah of hosts:
9 Therefore have I also made you Contemptible and base before all the people, As ye have not kept my ways And had respect of persons in the law.
10 Is there not one father to us all? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal falsely, every one with his brother? So as to pollute the covenant of our fathers.
11 Perfidiously has Judah acted, And abomination has been done In Israel and in Jerusalem; For polluted hath Judah (544) The holiness of Jehovah, which he loved, And hath married the daughter of another god.
12 Cut off will Jehovah The man who doeth this, The prompter and the respondent, From the tabernacles of Jacob; And him who bringeth an oblation to Jehovah of hosts.
13 And this have ye in the second place done — Covering with tears the altar of Jehovah, With weeping and with wailing, Because there is no more regard to the offering, And no receiving of what is acceptable from you hand.
14 And ye have said, Why is this? Because Jehovah has been witness Between thee and the wife of thy youth; With whom thou hast dealt unfaithfully, When yet she is thy consort, And the wife of thy covenant.
15 But did he not make one? And had he not an exuberance of spirit? And why one? That he might seek [secure] good seed. Therefore watch over your spirit; And with the wife of thy youth Deal not thou unfaithfully.
16 For if thou hatest, dismiss, Saith Jehovah, God of Israel; For he covers violence with his garment, Saith Jehovah of hosts: Therefore watch over you spirit, And deal not unfaithfully.
17 Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words; But ye have said, How have we wearied him? By saying, Whosoever doeth evil Is acceptable in the eyes of Jehovah, And in them he takes delight; Or, Where is the God of judgment?
1 Behold I will send my messenger, And he will clear the way before me: And presently he shall come to his temple, The Lord whom ye seek, Even the messenger of the covenant whom ye desire; Behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts.
2 But who will endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears. For he will be like a purifying fire And like the herb of the fullers:
3 And he shall sit as the purifier and cleanser of silver, And he will cleanse the sons of Levi, And fuse them as silver and gold,
4 That they may offer to Jehovah An offering in righteousness; And acceptable to Jehovah Shall be the offering of Judah and Jerusalem, As in the days of old, as in former years.
5 I will also draw nigh to you for judgment, And will be a swift witness Against the sorcerers and the adulterers And those who swear to a falsehood, And who withhold the wages of the hireling, And wrong the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, And who fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
6 Because I am Jehovah, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers Ye have turned from my statutes and have not kept them; Return to me, and I will return to you, Saith Jehovah of hosts: But ye have said, How are we to return?
8 Will a man rob the gods? (585) But ye have robbed me: yet ye have said, In what have we robbed thee? In the tithes and in the offerings.
9 With a curse are ye cursed, For ye have robbed me, the whole of the nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes to the store-house, And let there be food in my house; And prove me now by this, Saith Jehovah of hosts, Whether I will not open for you The windows of heaven, And draw out for you a blessing, Until there be a superabundance:
11 I will also restrain for you the devourer, That he may not destroy the fruit of your land; And not fruitless will be the vine for you in the field, Saith Jehovah of hosts.
12 Then blessed shall all nations call you, For ye shall be a land of delight, Saith Jehovah of hosts.
13 Strong against me have been your words, Saith Jehovah of hosts: But ye have said, In what have we spoken against thee? Ye have said, Vain it is to serve God,
14 And what profit is it, That we have kept his charge, And that we have walked humbly Before Jehovah of hosts:
15 And now happy we call the proud; yea, built up are they who do iniquity, And those who tempt God, and they are delivered.
16 Then spake those who feared Jehovah, Every one to his friend; And hearken did Jehovah and hear, And written was a book of remembrance Before him, for those who feared Jehovah And who thought on his name:
17 And they shall be to me, saith Jehovah of hosts, In the day which I appoint, a peculiar treasure; And I will spare them, As a man spares his son who serves him.
18 Then ye shall return and see the difference Between the righteous and the ungodly, Between him who serves God And him who does not serve him.
1 For behold the day! it comes burning as an oven And all the proud and all who do iniquity Shall be stubble; And burn them up shall the day that is coming, Saith Jehovah of hosts; For it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But arise to you, who fear my name, Shall the sun of righteousness, With healing in its beams; And ye shall go forth and leap, Like fattened calves:
3 And ye shall tread down the ungodly, For they shall be dust under the soles of your feet, In the day which I appoint, Saith Jehovah of hosts.
4 Remember the law of Moses my servant Which I committed to him on Horeb, For all Israel, even the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold I send to you Elijah the prophet, Before it comes, the day of Jehovah, great and terrible;
6 And he shall turn the heart of fathers to their sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers; Lest I come and smite the land with a curse.