to chide · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
seed
הַזֶּ֔רַעha.Ze.ra'
H2233
seed · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
spread
וְזֵרִ֤יתִיve.ze.Ri.ti
H2219
to toss about · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
dung
פֶ֙רֶשׁ֙fe.resh
H6569
excrement (as eliminated) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
faces
פְּנֵיכֶ֔םpe.nei.Khem
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
dung
פֶּ֖רֶשׁPe.resh
H6569
excrement (as eliminated) · noun, common masculine singular construct
feasts
חַגֵּיכֶ֑םcha.gei.Khem
H2282
a festival · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
away
וְנָשָׂ֥אve.na.Sa'
H5375
to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Nahum 3:6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.
Malachi 2:9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in…
Exodus 29:14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.
1 Kings 14:10 Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him t…
Job 20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Joel 1:17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
1 Samuel 2:29-30 Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yo…
2 Kings 9:36-37 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, sayin…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 2:1-9
What was said in the foregoing chapter was directed to the priests (Mal 1:6): Thus saith the Lord of hosts to you, O priests! that despise my name. But the crimes there charged upon them they were guilty of as sacrificers, and for those they might think it some excuse that they offered what the people brought, and therefore that, if they were not so good as they should be, it was not their fault, but the people's; and therefore here the corruptions there complained of are traced to the source and spring of them - the faults the priests were guilty of as teachers of the people, as expositors of the law and the lively oracles; and this is a part of their office which still remains in the hands…
corrupt, &c.--literally, "rebuke," answering to the opposite prophecy of blessing (Mal 3:11), "I will rebuke the devourer." To rebuke the seed is to forbid its growing.
your--literally, "for you"; that is, to your hurt.
dung of . . . solemn feasts--The dung in the maw of the victims sacrificed on the feast days; the maw was the perquisite of the priests (Deu 18:3), which gives peculiar point to the threat here. You shall get the dung of the maw as your perquisite, instead of the maw.
one shall take you away with it--that is, ye shall be taken away with it; it shall cleave to you wherever ye go [MOORE]. Dung shall be thrown on your faces, and ye shall be taken away as dung would be, dun…
Behold, I will corrupt your seed,.... Or, "the seed for you" (r); that is, for your sake, as Kimchi and Ben Melech explain it; meaning the seed they cast into the earth, which the Lord threatens to corrupt and destroy; so that it should not spring up again, and bring forth any increase: or, "rebuke" (s) it, as the word sometimes signifies; and so the Targum,
"behold, I will rebuke you in the increase, the fruit (son) of the seed.''
The sense is the same; corrupting the seed being a rebuke to them; and rebuking the seed being a corruption of that, or hindering it from growing up. It is a threatening of a sore famine that should be in the Jewish nation; and which Cocceius thinks was that whi…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 3, 4.) Behold, I will cast the branch to you, and I will scatter the refuse of your solemnities upon your faces, and it shall take you away with it. And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: Behold, I will separate for you the shoulder, and I will scatter the belly upon your faces, the belly of your solemnities, and I will take you together: and you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my testament may be with the Levites, says the Lord Almighty. Because he speaks to the priests, he says: I will cast in your faces those things which you consider holier in the Law, and which have been forgiven to you by God as a gift of virtues from sacrifices: The arm, which the Seventy translated as shoulder, that is, the right arm of the animal. And I will scatter, he says, the dung, that is, the abdomen; or according to the Hebrews, excrement, that is, Phares, metaphorically using the term to refer to what contains, calling that which is contained, for the priests received both the arm and the chest, as well as the tongue and the abdomen, and those things which are described in Leviticus (Lev. VII and IX) from sacrifices. He testifies that all these things are cast away for their sins, and that they are sent upon the faces of the priests (Num. 18; Deut. 18), so that those who offer may be such as those things that are offered. And He says that He will take you with Him, that is, the dung of your solemnities, so that the filthy faces may be defiled by the mixture of foul dung, and from that which I cast away from you, you may understand that I am He who once chose your father Levi, and through Levi Aaron, and granted you the glory of the priesthood, so that it might be My covenant or testament with Levi, and he might minister to Me in an eternal priesthood. Note that 'Brit' in Hebrew is translated as 'pact' or 'covenant' by Aquila, 'testament' by the LXX, and in many places in Scripture, 'testament' does not mean the will of the deceased, but a covenant of the living. God desired that all people, especially priests, not have any blemish and adorn their shoulder or arm with good works. A good conscience is signified by the heart, holy confession by the tongue, so that what we believe in our hearts for righteousness, we confess with our mouths for salvation…
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
Seed · The Jews punished by: Its rotting in the ground — The Jews punished by: Its rotting in the ground
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).
Malachi 2:3
3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
3. Ecce ego corrumpo (vel perdo) vobis semen (vertunt Graeci, brachium; sed decepti sunt in una litera,) et spergam stercus super facies vestras, stercus solemnitatum vestrarum; et tollet vos ad se (alii vertunt, tollet vos ad ipsum; sed coacta est illa expositio.)
He confirms here again what he had said in the last verse, -- that they would perceive God's curse in want and poverty. The curse of God is any kind of calamity; for as God declares especially his favor by a liberal support, so the sterility of the land and defective produce…
The rebuke administered to the priests for their wicked doings is followed by an announcement of the punishment which they will bring upon themselves in case they should not observe the admonition, or render to the Lord the reverence due to His name when discharging the duties of their office. Mal 2:1. "And now, ye priests, this commandment comes to you. Mal 2:2. If ye do not hear and lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, I send against you the curse and curse your blessings, yea I have cursed them, because ye will not lay it to heart. Mal 2:3. Behold I rebuke your arm, and scatter dung upon your face, the dung of your feasts, and they will carry you away to it.…
make up your minds: This was an issue of the will, not the emotions. • terrible curse: Malachi had in mind the utter destruction of those who violated God’s covenant (see Deut 28:20).
