to fold · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
sons
בְּנֵֽיbe.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Jacob
יַעֲקֹ֖בya.'a.Ko
H3290
Jaakob · proper noun, a man's name
consumed
כְלִיתֶֽםkhe.li.Tem
H3615
to end · verb, qal perfect, 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
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken…
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shado…
Lamentations 3:22-23 It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
Isaiah 40:28-31 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is…
Romans 8:28-32 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Exodus 3:14-15 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 3:1-6
The first words of this chapter seem a direct answer to the profane atheistical demand of the scoffers of those days which closed the foregoing chapter: Where is the God of judgment? To which it is readily answered, "Here he is; he is just at the door; the long-expected Messiah is ready to appear; and he says, For judgment have I come into this world, for that judgment which you have so impudently bid defiance to." One of the rabbin says that the meaning of this is, That God will raise up a righteous King, to set things in order, even the king Messiah. And the beginning of the gospel of Christ is expressly said to be the accomplishment of this promise, with which the Old Testament concludes,…
the Lord--Jehovah: a name implying His immutable faithfulness in fulfilling His promises: the covenant name of God to the Jews (Exo 6:3), called here "the sons of Jacob," in reference to God's covenant with that patriarch.
I change not--Ye are mistaken in inferring that, because I have not yet executed judgment on the wicked, I am changed from what I once was, namely, a God of judgment.
therefore ye . . . are not consumed--Ye yourselves being "not consumed," as ye have long ago deserved, are a signal proof of My unchangeableness. Rom 11:29 : compare the whole chapter, in which God's mercy in store for Israel is made wholly to flow from God's unchanging faithfulness to His own covenant of…
For I am the Lord,.... Or Jehovah; a name peculiar to the most High, and so a proof of the deity of Christ, who here speaks; and is expressive of his being; of his self-existence; of his purity and simplicity; of his immensity and infinity; and of his eternity and sovereignty:
I change not; being the same today, yesterday, and forever; he changed not in his divine nature and personality by becoming man; he took that into union with him he had not before, but remained the same he ever was; nor did he change in his threatenings of destruction to the Jews, which came upon them according to his word; nor in his promises of his Spirit, and presence, and protection to his people; nor will he ever…
The Church Fathers
And that which follows: I am the Lord and I do not change, he states this because he had said earlier: he is like a consuming fire, and like the soap of fullers, so that we do not think that he changes his divine nature, since he is called an angel, or fire, or Borith for us.
He does not lack things that are of Him and through Him and in Him. The Source and Maker of all, Who contains all, Who is beyond all, does not need that which is within Him, the Creator His creatures, the Possessor His possessions. Nothing is prior to Him, nothing derived from any other than Him, nothing beyond Him. What element of fulness is still lacking in God, which time will supply to make Him all in all? Whence can He receive it, if outside Him is nothing, and while nothing is outside Him, He is eternally Himself? And if He is eternally Himself, and there is nothing outside Him, with what increase shall He be made full, by what addition shall He be made other than He is? Did He not say, I am and I change not? What possibility is there of change in Him? What scope for progress? What is prior to eternity? What more divine than God? The subjection of the Son will not therefore make God to be all in all, nor will any cause perfect Him, from Whom and through Whom and in Whom are all causes. He remains God as He ever was, and He needs nothing further, for what He is, He is eternally of Himself and for Himself.
(Verse 6) And you, sons of Jacob, were not consumed. For from the days of your fathers, you have strayed from my commandments and have not kept them. LXX: And you, sons of Jacob, have not strayed from the sins of your fathers, you have turned away from my commandments, and have not kept them. As I said before: I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, those who exploit hired workers, widows and orphans, and those who oppress the foreigners, for they have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts. Calling Himself a just judge, He brought in the statement: 'I am the Lord and I do not change.' And the meaning is this: You are daily changed by wickedness, adultery, perjury, slander, and violence, but I, in judgment, am not swayed by the diversity of persons. And though I admit to being a severe and just judge, O sons of Jacob, you are not consumed by the variety of torments, according to what is written in Jeremiah: 'Without cause I struck your sons, you did not receive discipline' (Jer. 2:30): and you have not done this only recently, nor once, to merit forgiveness for your error, but you will have inherited impiety, departing from my statutes from the days of your fathers, and not keeping what I commanded. But the sons of Jacob according to the supplanter's reckoning, and the brothers of the original snatcher, who do not depart from the sins of their fathers, and deviate from what is lawful, and do not keep the commandments, let us understand those who in the Church constitution depart from vices, and falsely assume for themselves the name of Christian religion.
Dictionary and topics
Jehovah — The special and significant name (not merely an appellative title such as Lord [adonai]) by which God revealed himself to the ancient Hebrews (Ex. 6:2, 3). This name, the Tetragrammaton of the…
Christ Is God · As unchangeable — As unchangeable
Malachi · Fortells the coming of the Messiah — Fortells the coming of the Messiah
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 3:6
6. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
6. Quia ego Iehova, non muto (alii vertunt, non mutor, et ad rem ipsam parum interest;) et vos filii Iacob non estis consumpti.
Here the Prophet more clearly reproves and checks the impious waywardness of the people; for God, after having said that he would come and send a Redeemer, though not such as would satisfy the Jews, now claims to himself what justly belongs to him, and says that he changes not, because he is God. Under the name Jehovah, God reasons from his own nature; for he sets himself, as we have observed in our last lecture, in opposition to mortals; nor is it a wonder that God here…
Mal 3:5. "And I will draw near to you to judgment, and will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear for deceit, and those who press down the wages of the hireling, the widow and the orphan, and bow down the foreigner, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. Mal 3:6. For I Jehovah, I change not; and ye sons of Israel, ye are not consumed." The refining which the Lord will perform at His coming will not limit itself to the priests, but become a judgment upon all sinners. This judgment is threatened against those who wanted the judgment of God to come, according to Mal 2:17. To these the Lord will draw near to judgment, and rise up as a…
Malachi’s fifth message echoes the first (1:2-5) by emphasizing God’s faithfulness to his promises. He calls Israel to a similar faithfulness in worship, especially in giving their tithes and offerings. If Malachi is a courtroom drama, the fifth message is the judge’s verdict. The real message is repentance—God wants honest and sincere worship from his people, of which tithing is a symbol.
