Malachi 3:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Malachi 3:14
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָאֽוֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the d…
Psalms 73:8-13 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
Job 35:3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
Zephaniah 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that s…
Zechariah 7:3-6 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, s…
Job 34:9 For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Job 22:17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 3:13–end
Among the people of the Jews at this time, though they all enjoyed the same privileges and advantages, there were men of very different characters (as ever were, and ever will be, in the world and in the church), like Jeremiah's figs, some very good and others very bad, some that plainly appeared to be the children of God and others that as plainly discovered themselves to be the children of the wicked one. There are tares and wheat in the same field, chaff and corn in the same floor; and here we have an account of both.
I. Here is the angry notice God takes of the impudent blasphemous talk of the sinners in Zion and his just resentments of it. Probably there was a club of them that were in…
what profit . . . that we . . . kept, &c.--(See on Mal 2:17). They here resume the same murmur against God. Job 21:14-15; Job 22:17 describe a further stage of the same skeptical spirit, when the skeptic has actually ceased to keep God's service. Psa 73:1-14 describes the temptation to a like feeling in the saint when seeing the really godly suffer and the ungodly prosper in worldly goods now. The Jews here mistake utterly the nature of God's service, converting it into a mercenary bargain; they attended to outward observances, not from love to God, but in the hope of being well paid for in outward prosperity; when this was withheld, they charged God with being unjust, forgetting alike that…
Ye have said, it is vain to serve God,.... This they said in their hearts, if not with their lips, that it was a vain thing for a man to serve God; he got nothing by it; he had no reward for it; it fared no better with him than the wicked; nay, the wicked fared better than he; and therefore who would be a worshipper of God? see Job 21:15. Abarbinel understands this also with respect to God, who is worshipped; to whom worship, say these men, is no ways profitable, nor does he regard it; see Job 35:7 and therefore it is in vain to serve him, since neither he, nor we, are the better for it:
and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance; or "his observation" (n); that is, have observed…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 14) You have said, 'It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' LXX: And you said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what good is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' To whom the Lord replied: You have said, It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his precepts? In this present world they demand reward for serving God, therefore they do not receive it. And because we have walked sorrowful before the Lord, according to what is written in the Psalms: All the day long I walked in sadness (Psalm 37:7).
It was, in fact, of their purely material interpretation of the law and of their failure to perceive that its temporal promises were but symbols of eternal rewards that they broke into such rebellious resentfulness as to say, "He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts? Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up." It was such complaints as these that compelled the prophet to anticipate, as it were, the last judgment in which the wicked will be so far from even a pretense of happiness that their misery will be apparent to all, whereas the good, untroubled by even transitory sorrow, will enjoy a manifest and unending beatitude. Malachi has already given similar illustration of the kind of murmurings that wearied the Lord: "every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and such please him." The only point I want to make is that such murmurings against God were the result of an unspiritual interpretation of the law.
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
Blasphemy · 7:25;11:36,37; — 7:25;11:36,37;
Condescension Of God · 6:1-9; — 6:1-9;
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Infidelity · 1:12; — 1:12;
Malachi · Reproves God’s people for their impietyMal 1;2; — Reproves God’s people for their impietyMal 1;2;
Murmuring · 7:10; — 7:10;
Skepticism · 14:1;53:1; — 14:1;53:1;
Vanity · The wicked: Count God’s service as — The wicked: Count God’s service as
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 3:13-15
13. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
13. Invaluerunt contra me verba vestra, dicit Iehova; et dixistis, In quo locuti sumus contra te?
14. Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
14. Dixistis, Frustra servitur Deo et quae utilitas? quia custodivimus custodiam ejus, et quia ambulavimus supplices (vel, humiles; in obscuro vulta, ad verbum) coram facie Iehovae exercituum.
15. And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even de…
The impatient murmuring of the nation. - Mal 3:13. "Your words do violence to me, saith Jehovah; and ye say, What do we converse against Thee? Mal 3:14. Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what gain is it, that we have kept His guard, and have gone about in deep mourning before Jehovah of hosts? Mal 3:15. And now we call the proud blessed: not only have the doers of wickedness been built up, but they have also tempted God and have been saved." After the Lord has disclosed to the people the cause of His withholding His blessing, He shows them still further, that their murmuring against Him is unjust, and that the coming day of judgment will bring to light the distinction between the wicked a…
What have we gained? The people assumed that righteous acts would result in material blessing (Deut 28). • sorry for our sins: The idea was to parade mournfully or walk in funeral garb to demonstrate penitence, as though such acts were righteous in themselves (see Matt 6:1-18).
