Malachi 3:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Malachi 3:7
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
fathers
אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֜ם'a.vo.tei.Khem
H1
father · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
away
סַרְתֶּ֤םsar.Tem
H5493
to turn off (literal or figurative) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
ordinances
מֵֽחֻקַּי֙me.chu.Kai
H2706
an enactment · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
kept
שְׁמַרְתֶּ֔םshe.mar.Tem
H8104
properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Return
שׁ֤וּבוּShu.vu
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
return
וְאָשׁ֣וּבָהve.'a.Shu.vah
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
saith
אָמַ֖ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֑וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
said
וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖םva.'a.mar.Tem
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
return
נָשֽׁוּבna.Shuv
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common 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
Zechariah 1:3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LO…
Romans 10:21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Deuteronomy 31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eat…
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the…
Leviticus 26:40-42 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also…
Nehemiah 9:28-30 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dom…
Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 3:7-12
We have here God's controversy with the men of that generation, for deserting his service and robbing him - wicked servants indeed, that not only run away from their Master, but run away with their Master's goods.
I. They had run away from their Master, and quitted the work he gave them to do (Mal 3:7): You have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. The ordinances of God's worship were the business which as servants they must mind, the talents which they must trade with, and the trust which was committed to them to keep; but they went away from them, grew weary of them, and withdrew their neck from that yoke; they deviated from the rule that God had prescribed to them, and bet…
Reproof for the non-payment of tithes and offerings, which is the cause of their national calamities, and promise of prosperity on their paying them.
from . . . days of your fathers--Ye live as your fathers did when they brought on themselves the Babylonian captivity, and ye wish to follow in their steps. This shows that nothing but God's unchanging long-suffering had prevented their being long ago "consumed" (Mal 3:6).
Return unto me--in penitence.
I will return unto you--in blessings.
Wherein, &c.-- (Mal 3:16). The same insensibility to their guilt continues: they speak in the tone of injured innocence, as if God calumniated them.
John Gill on Malachi 3:7
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances,.... Here begins an enumeration of the sins of the Jews, which were the cause of their ruin; and here is first a general charge of apostasy from the statutes and ordinances of the law, which they made void by the traditions of the fathers; and therefore this word is used as referring to this evil, as well as to express their early, long, and continued departure from the ways of God; which as it was an aggravation of their sin, that they should have so long ago forsook the ordinances of God,
and have not kept them, but transgressed them by observing the traditions of men, Matthew 15:3 so it is an instance of the patienc…
And while God is provoked with frequent and continual offenses, he softens his indignation, and in his patience waits for the day of retribution, once for all determined. And although he has revenge in his power, he prefers to keep patience for a long while. [He bears], that is to say, mercifully, and puts off, so that, if it might be possible, the long-protracted mischief may at some time be changed, and humanity, involved in the contagion of errors and crimes, may even though late be converted to God, as he himself warns and says, "I do not will the death of him that dies, so much as that he may return and live." And again, " 'Return unto me,' says the Lord."
On account of its great intensity, this reflection is sometimes mingled with wonder. For the heart of those who see the Lord will rejoice. Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times, and you will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity. Hasten to the Lord, O sinners; he remits iniquity and removes sins. For he has sworn, "I have no pleasure in the death which the sinner dies," so that the sinner may repent and live. "I have spread out my hands all day toward a quarrelsome and disobedient people." And "Why would you want to die, O house of Jacob?" "Turn to me, and I will turn to you."
(Verse 7 and following) Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? And you say: in what way have we deceived you? Because the tithes and first fruits are with you, and you look upon them, and you defraud me ((or: deceive me)): the year is complete, and you have brought in the fruits into the storehouse, and there will be plunder in your houses. Therefore, return to this, says the Lord Almighty: unless I open for you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out my blessing upon you until it is sufficient, and I will divide food for you, and your land will not be destroyed, and your vineyard will not wither in the field, says the Lord Almighty: and all the nations will call you blessed, because you will be a land of delight, says the Lord Almighty. And in the beginning we said that Malachi should be understood as the prophet Ezra; and all the things that are written about him in history, are contained in this book as well: and now we say that during his time and that of Nehemiah (whom it is clear lived together) there was a very severe famine, and because of the famine there was a revolt, and the poor, compelled by the necessity of things, sold their sons and daughters, and all their possessions, and their entire substance. Finally they say: Our sons and daughters are too many, let us take their price in wheat, and eat and live. And there were those who said: Let us sell our fields and vineyards, and our…
Dictionary and topics
Condescension Of God · 6:1-9; — 6:1-9;
Malachi · Reproves God’s people for their impietyMal 1;2; — Reproves God’s people for their impietyMal 1;2;
Presumption · .In reviling God — .In reviling God
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 3:7-8
Malachi 3:7, 8
7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
7. A diebus patrum vestrorum declinastis a statutis meis (vel, edictis,) et non servastis: Revertimini ad me, et revertar ad vos, dicit Iehova exercituum; et dixistis, In quo revertemur?
8. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
8. An diripiet homo Deum (vel, deos, vel, Iudices,) quia vos diripuistis me? et dixistis, In quo diripuimus te (vel, expilavimus)? In decimis et oblationibus.
The Prophet ex…
After the Lord has announced to the murmuring people that He will suddenly draw near to judgment upon the wicked, He proceeds to explain the reason why He has hitherto withheld His blessing and His salvation. Mal 3:7. "From the days of your fathers ye have departed from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye say, Wherein shall we return? Mal 3:8. Dare a man indeed defraud God, that ye have defrauded me? and ye say, In what have we defrauded Thee? In the tithes and the heave-offering. Mal 3:9. Ye are cursed with the curse, and yet ye defraud me, even the whole nation." The reason why Israel waits in vain for the judgment…
In the context of covenant relationship, return expresses a change of loyalty on the part of Israel or God. Typically, the term is understood as repentance, a complete change of direction back to God or a total reorientation toward the Lord. The imperative verb conveys urgency and demands an immediate response from the audience. The indictment of insincere worship builds on similar charges in the second disputation (see 1:6-14), just as God’s promise to “open the windows of heaven” (3:10) affirms his power as “a great king” (see 1:14).
