Malachi 2:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Malachi 2:13
And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
an altar · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
tears
דִּמְעָה֙dim.'Ah
H1832
weeping · noun, common feminine singular absolute
weeping
בְּכִ֖יbe.Khi
H1065
a weeping · noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
וַֽאֲנָקָ֑הva.'a.na.Kah
H603
shrieking · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
regardeth
פְּנוֹת֙pe.nOt
H6437
to turn · verb, qal infinitive construct
offering
הַמִּנְחָ֔הha.min.Chah
H4503
a donation · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
receiveth
וְלָקַ֥חַתve.la.Ka.chat
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
will
רָצ֖וֹןra.Tzon
H7522
delight (especially as shown) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hand
מִיֶּדְכֶֽםmi.yed.Khem
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 1:11-15 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed be…
Psalms 78:34-37 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
Jeremiah 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume th…
Deuteronomy 15:9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil aga…
Deuteronomy 26:14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead:…
1 Samuel 1:9-10 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of th…
2 Samuel 13:19-20 And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.
Nehemiah 8:9-12 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 2:10–end
Corrupt practices are the genuine fruit and product of corrupt principles; and the badness of men's hearts and lives is owing to some loose atheistical notions which they have got and which they govern themselves by. Now, in these verses, we have an instance of this; we here find men dealing falsely with one another, and it is because they think falsely of their God. Observe,
I. How corrupt their practices were. In general, they dealt treacherously every man against his brother, Mal 2:10. It cannot be expected that he who is false to his God should be true to his friend. They had dealt treacherously with God in his tithes and offerings, and had defrauded him, and thus conscience was debauche…
done again--"a second time": an aggravation of your offense (Neh 13:23-31), in that it is a relapse into the sin already checked once under Ezra (Ezr 9:10) [HENDERSON]. Or, "the second time" means this: Your first sin was your blemished offerings to the Lord: now "again" is added your sin towards your wives [CALVIN].
covering . . . altar . . . with tears--shed by your unoffending wives, repudiated by you that ye might take foreign wives. CALVIN makes the "tears" to be those of all the people on perceiving their sacrifices to be sternly rejected by God.
John Gill on Malachi 2:13
And this have ye done again,.... Or "in the second" (b) place; to their rejection and ill treatment of Christ they added their hypocritical prayers and tears, as follows:
covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping, and with crying out; for the Messiah they vainly expect, pretending great humiliation for their sins: though some, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra, make the first evil to be their offering illegal sacrifices on the altar, complained of in the former chapter Malachi 1:1; and this second, their marrying strange wives, on account of which their lawful wives came into the house of God, and wept over the altar before the Lord, complaining of the injury that was done them:
insomuch…
(v. 13 ff.) And you have done this again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping and groaning, so that I will no longer look upon your sacrifices or accept anything pleasing from your hands. Yet you ask, 'Why?' Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did not one God create us all? Did not one God give us life and breath? And what does one seek, except the seed of God? Therefore, guard your spirit and do not despise the wife of your youth. When you have hatred, let it go, says the Lord God of Israel; but iniquity will cover its clothing, says the Lord of hosts: guard your spirit and do not despise. LXX: And you have done these things that I hated: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping and groaning, looking for a sacrifice still worthy of labor, or to receive something acceptable from your hands. And you said, why? Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have abandoned, and she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant, and no other person has done this, and the remainder of your spirit. And you said, what else does God seek besides offspring? And guard in your spirit, and do not abandon the wife of your youth. But if you hate her and divorce her, says the Lord God of Israel, he will cover your thoughts of wickedness, says the Almighty Lord. And guard in your spirit, and do not abandon. Let us interpret the story, and connecting short sentences to each verse, let us discuss what has been handed down to us from the Hebrews. The abandoned wives of the Israelites, contemplating the women of foreign nations in the beds of their husbands, sought refuge only in God's help, prostrating themselves before the altar of the Lord for 966 days and nights with tears, groans, and wails, causing envy towards His providence; because He did not regard human affairs and did not alleviate their miseries. Where God says that he cannot accept sacrifice and offering from the hands of priests who have committed these things, being hindered by the weeping and lamentations of their wives, and moreover, he asks why he does not accept sacrifice from their hands, and immediately he declares: Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised, saying: Because…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Malachi — Messenger or angel, the last of the minor prophets, and the writer of the last book of the Old Testament canon (Mal. 4:4, 5, 6). Nothing is known of him beyond what is contained in his book of…
Altar · . — .
Altar Of Burnt Offering, The · The altar of the Lord — The altar of the Lord
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Malachi 2:13
Malachi 2:13
13. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
13. Et hoc secundo fecistis, operiendo lachrymis altare Iehovae fletu et ploratu, eo quod amplius non respicitur ad oblationem, et non suscipitur beneplacitum e manu vestra.
The Prophet amplifies again the fault of the priests, because the people, when they perceived that God was adverse to them, found no means of pacifying him. And when men have an idea that God is inexorable to them, every zeal for religion must necessarily decay; and hence it is said in Psalm 130:4…
Mal 2:13. "And this ye do a second time: cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and signs, so that He does not turn any more to the sacrifice, and accept the well-pleasing thing at your hand. Mal 2:14. And ye say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, towards whom thou hast acted treacherously; whereas she is nevertheless thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. Mal 2:15. And not one did so who had still a remnant of spirit. And what (did) the one? He sought seed of God. Therefore shall ye take heed for your spirit, and deal not faithlessly to the wife of thy youth. Mal 2:16. For I hate divorce, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel;…
