Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Malachi 3:5 - 3:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And I; either God the Father, or Christ the Messiah, to whom the Father hath committed all judgment, Joh_5:22.
Will come near; you have spoken as if you thought I was far off, but by what I do you shall see I am near to you, and you shall feel my hand, that you may believe I am a God of judgment, and they happy who wait for him, and they miserable who fall under his judgments.
To you O Jews; not those very persons Malachi preached to, but those who should be then living when the Messiah cometh, which was more than four hundred years after Malachi’s preaching, by which time his hearers were all dead.
To judgment, against the wicked, to whom he would be what fire is to the dross in the furnace; to the righteous what the fire is to purer parts of the gold: he will consume the wicked, he will refine the good, he will be terrible to both in doing this.
I will be a swift witness: in that he will be a witness, they may be assured that they should. not be quitted in judgment for want of evidence; and in that a swift witness, they may be sure he will come in timely enough against them. And further yet, he that comes near as Judge to call them to an account, was always near them to observe all they did, all they spake, or thought, and he will be near as witness against them.
Against the sorcerers: sorcery was forbidden, and God testifies his detestation of the sin, and such as practise it, Deu_18:10-14: the people of God, who may consult with their God, his word, and prophets, do very abominably if they consult with the devil; a sin their fathers learnt among the Egyptians, a sin they had learnt among the Chaldeans during the captivity, and practised under the second temple.
The adulterers; who transgressed the law of nature and of God, Exo_20:14 Deu_5:18 22:22; and were by the law to die for it.
False swearers; perjury, against which Zec_5:3,4, and God hateth this sin, Zec_8:17.
Those that oppress the hireling in his wages; either detaining it, or lessening it, Jer_22:13 Jam_5:4.
The widow; who should be relieved, Deu_24:19-21, not oppressed, Isa_1:17.
The fatherless: such are not only those who have lost their fathers by death, but all friendless ones; God requires us to assist and help such, not oppress them, Psa_82:1-4.
That turn aside the stranger from his right; pervert judgment, or wrest the law, or admit false witness against a stranger. Not doing right is ill, though to an enemy, but it is a crying sin to do wrong to a stranger, and God will punish it when it crieth, as he did upon your fathers, Eze_22:7, with Mal_3:13-16.
And fear not me; neither reverence my precepts to keep them, not tremble at my threats to prevent the execution of them by declining the sins I threaten. Irreligion is the root of all these oppressions, and God will punish them.