Malachi 2:9-12 meaning

In the first part of Malachi 2:9-12, the LORD pronounces discipline on the disobedient priests in Judah. In the previous section, God spoke of how the current priests had corrupted the covenant He made with the priests in former days. In former times, God rewarded “Levi” (the priests) with a reward covenant for having zeal for His word (Numbers 25:12-13).

Since the current era priests failed to please the LORD, who is their covenant partner, He will discipline them. God loves His people and chastises those He loves (Deuteronomy 8:5, Hebrews 12:6). In this case, the discipline of God included the priests losing their favor in the sight of the people. As God declared: So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction (v. 9).

The So in verse 9 refers to the previous section where the Lord chastised the priests because they had “caused many to stumble.” Now we learn that the priests in Malachi’s day distorted the law by showing partiality in the instruction. Showing partiality often involves showing favoritism to the rich or powerful over the poor and weak. In Leviticus 19, Moses warned the Israelites about this evil practice: “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly” (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19).

The New Testament also calls on believers to be impartial and give honor to all people as being of equal value, having been made in the image of God. The law defines being partial to people due to their worldly status as a sin (1 Timothy 5:21, James 2:9). God is impartial and so we should be as well (Romans 2:11). Sadly, the priests in Malachi’s generation did not walk in God’s ways. They applied the biblical principles differently to different people.

They showed this partiality in the instruction. The word translated instruction is again here “torah.” The inference is that the priests are telling one thing to some people and other things to other people. It would seem that the teaching of God’s word is for sale. Consequently, the priests would fall under divine judgment. We know from the New Testament how it angers God for those who are supposed to minister to His people to use their position to enrich themselves (John 2:15-17).

Since the people observed the priests showing partiality in the instruction, the priests were judged by their own actions, how they diminished their honor. God caused them to become despised and abased before all the people. It is inferred that since the priests despised the common people, God has given them measure for measure (Matthew 7:1). God has caused them to be despised and abased in the eyes of the people. The Hebrew word translated abased is also translated as “lower.” The common people ceased to respect the priests; they were despised.

The word of the Lord is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). The word of God never returns void, it always accomplishes its purpose (Isaiah 55:11). This era of priests had forsaken the tradition of their ancestors who were faithful to God’s word. They had ceased to follow God’s ways as given in His instruction (“torah”). As a result, God judged them by making them despised in the eyes of the people they were appointed to lead.

God hates partiality (Exodus 23:3, Deuteronomy 10:17, 16:19, 2 Chronicles 19:7, Romans 2:11, James 2:9). The basis to reject partiality is because God created each person in His image (Genesis 1:26). All have dignity because they are made in the image of God. As God says, Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? 

Indeed, the Suzerain (ruler) God was the father of all the Jewish people. As such, He expected them to be loyal and faithful. He adopted them as His children (Deuteronomy 14:1). He redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, established a covenant relationship with them on Mount Sinai, and vowed to provide for all their needs.

But in this context the implication is even greater. God is one father because He created us. In this sense all of humanity has God as a father because God is our Creator. This infers that partiality against any human is an affront to God. All humans are created by God and we all have one father. That means all humans are part of one family.

The prophet asks a rhetorical question: Has not one God created us? The expected answer is “Yes.” God created all people, so He is one father in that sense. In another sense, God also created Israel and Judah as national entities and made them a people of His treasured possession (Exodus 19:4-6). He alone caused them to exist as a nation (Deuteronomy 32:6). Therefore, Malachi followed up with a third rhetorical question: Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? (v 10).

The inference from context is that to deal with others with partiality is to deal treacherously (Malachi 2:9). And that in turn is to profane the covenant of our fathers. The covenant of our fathers refers to the covenant Israel entered into with God to follow His commands (Exodus 19:8). In that covenant, the people vowed to love their neighbors as themselves (Leviticus 19:18). They are to treat one another as a brother. The Israelites were brothers to one another because they were of the same nation. In a broader sense each human is a brother to every other human, because everyone shares the same Creator, who is our father because He made us all.

To show partiality is to exploit one’s privilege or authority to extract benefit from others, rather than serve others. And to exploit one another is to follow pagan ways, the ways of foreign gods. The worship of foreign gods led to exploitative behavior; the two are connected. The idols provided moral justification for the exploitation and immorality practiced by the pagan cultures.

The next verse adds another violation. In addition to dealing treacherously by treating those of lesser status with partiality, the priests also created an abomination in God’s temple.

The temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians had been renovated under the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1-2). The completion of the temple renovation is thought to have been around 516 BC, so perhaps the priests of Judah had resumed service in the temple for roughly a century at the time of Malachi’s prophecy.

Malachi asserts that Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god (v. 11).

The listing of offenses now appears to broaden. This chapter began by calling out the priests (Malachi 2:1). This verse now asserts that not only the priests, but all of Judah has dealt treacherously. This would be a natural consequence of the corruption of the priests since the people tend to follow the example of their leaders. The priests were supposed to be teaching the people to follow God in righteousness. Instead they were exploiting others, and in doing so were leading the people to follow in their exploitative ways.

To have married the daughter of a foreign god would lead to following the exploitative ways of the Canaanites. The exploitative ways were similar to those the Israelites had seen in Egypt. The various types of exploitation practiced in the cultures of Canaan and Egypt are outlined in Leviticus 18. They include many forms of incest, sexual perversion of many sorts including with animals, and even the sacrifice of children.

The heart of exploitation is to view other humans as objects from whom we can extract. Showing partiality is to abuse the innocent while appeasing the powerful. This was the moral fabric of paganism, all of which would have fallen under the moral authority of a foreign god. This god would validate such exploitative behavior. For example, taking the life of unwanted children would be validated as a sacrifice to the pagan god, and would therefore call holy what is evil. Child sacrifice was a practice particularly hated by the LORD God (Jeremiah 19:5).

The result of following the foreign god was that both the priests and all of Judah have dealt treacherously. This treachery would include partiality, as in verse 10. But it is inferred in verse 11 that the Jewish people have also committed treachery against God. For one, they violated their covenant with God, which required them to love others as they had loved themselves (Leviticus 19:18).

The verb translated as deal treacherously (“baghadh” in Hebrew) means to act faithlessly. Old Testament writers often used this verb to describe how someone fails to honor an agreement (Exodus 21:8; Jeremiah 3:20). In this case the Israelites were not honoring their vow to follow God’s ways. This then profaned the covenant of our fathers. To profane something sacred means to treat it with irreverence and disrespect. That means the Judeans violated the covenant God established with their fathers on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:8).

The result of dealing treacherously was that an abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem (v. 11). Here in verse 11, we have three entities named: Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Though Judah began as a tribe of Israel, here the term Judah denotes the nation of Judah, which split from Israel after the death of King Solomon (1 Kings 12:16-17).

At the time of the writing of Malachi it is likely that the nation Judah was still a vassal state of Persia. Persia and her vassals were later conquered by the Greeks. But in this passage, the prophet used Judah to represent the people living in Judah. The term Israel here does not refer to the northern kingdom of Israel, as in the pre-exilic prophetic books. That kingdom went into exile around 722 BC and did not return (2 Kings 17:5-6).

Here Israel refers to the Holy Land in general. Its capital was Jerusalem. This would seem to emphasize God’s covenant relationship with all of Israel. It also reflects the fact that God’s promise to give the land to the Hebrews remained in force (Genesis 15:18-20). This reflects the reality that God always keeps His promises (Romans 11:29). As we see in Revelation, God still tracks who belongs to what tribe (Revelation 7:4-8). In the new earth the tribes will all be represented on twelve gates of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:12).

The word abomination (Hebrew, “toʿevah”) denotes something morally and religiously detestable or perverse in the eyes of the LORD (Deuteronomy 7:26; 14:3; 22:5). It can refer to something unclean or impure; anything that does not measure up to God’s standard of righteousness (Deuteronomy 7:25). Malachi specified the abomination, saying Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god (v 11).

The term Judah means the people of Judah, especially the men.

The behavior of a people is always connected with what they worship. In worshiping a foreign god, Judah has:

• Dealt treacherously in that they have broken their vow to follow their covenant vows with God,
• Committed a terrible abomination that has occurred in Israel and in Jerusalem, because they have followed the ways of the pagan gods and followed their ways of exploitation rather than following God’s way of loving their neighbors, and
• Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves. 

The profaning of the sanctuary refers to God’s temple. When this temple was renovated and dedicated, the old men who had seen Solomon’s temple cried because this one was so inferior to that of Solomon’s, and the young men cried for joy because they had never seen a temple in Israel (Ezra 3:12). Notwithstanding how the temple was viewed in the eyes of the people, this verse asserts that God loves His sanctuary. It is the place where He placed His presence (2 Chronicles 5:14). By their actions, the priests had profaned the sanctuary and thereby they had profaned that which God loved.

In the New Testament, believers in Jesus are taught that their bodies are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Apostle Paul teaches that God will destroy anyone who destroys His temple, which in this case is the human body of one of His people:

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”
(1 Corinthians 3:17)

God never changes (Hebrews 13:8). It would seem that God is executing this same principle against the priests and people of Judah in the era of Malachi. They have profaned His temple; God is executing judgment upon them. We are not explicitly told what the people have done to profane the sanctuary. However, it is implied that the practice of sexual immorality was taking place in the temple.

Sexual immorality was a core feature of pagan worship. When God says the people have married the daughter of a foreign god He could be referring to pagan immorality. Marriage and sexual intercourse are one and the same in scripture. This is illustrated in 1 Corinthians 6:15-17, which says to have sex with a prostitute is to be one with her, citing Genesis 2:24 which describes marriage. That the pagan practice of sexual immorality is being performed in the temple is also implied in later verses where God says He hates divorce and desires the people to remain faithful to the wives of their youth (Malachi 2:14).

Thus, in marrying a foreign god, the people are dishonoring the LORD. Rather than loving the LORD with all their heart, mind, and strength as they were commanded, they are following the pagan practices of sexual immorality (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). When put together with their sinful action of practicing partiality against their brothers rather than loving their brothers, the people of Judah were violating the two great commandments to love the LORD and to love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:37-39).

This was apparently a practice that was widespread in Judah. God’s accountability for following His ways extends beyond the priests. God says As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts (v. 12).

The phrase does this refers to committing the abomination in the sanctuary. Malachi pronounces a desire that every man who does this might be judged by being cut off from the tents of Jacob. The verb cut off means to remove something or destroy it. The expressed desire is for those committing the abomination to be separated from the community so their negative influence can be eliminated.

The tents of Jacob likely stand for the community of Israel. The expression everyone who awakes and answers could refer to the ancient practice of keeping guard in a camp, having one person to call out and another to answer. If so, in our context it could refer to all who participate in the practice.

Verse 12 can also be translated “May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts.” This translation would infer that Malachi desires judgment to come upon any man who a) sins knowingly and b) then brings an offering to the LORD. Such a practice would demonstrate a view of God as being like a pagan deity that can be manipulated.

But God does not desire sacrifice, as though He has any needs. God desires a heart that follows Him and His ways (1 Samuel 15:22, Hebrews 10:5-8). The people of Judah are apparently engaging in sex-cult practices in His sanctuary then bringing offerings to Him, expecting His blessing. This practice not only breaks their covenant vow, it also dishonors God, treating Him as though He can be bribed.

Jesus taught that false teaching and hypocrisy were like leaven, or yeast. A little bit negatively affects the entire congregation (Matthew 16:6, Luke 12:1). In this case it seems that the bad leadership of the priests had caused Judah to be corrupt. In expressing a desire to rid Judah of all such offenders, Malachi wishes these negative, sinful influences could be removed from Judah.

The prophet said this would happen even if that man presented an offering to the LORD of hosts. The noun offering (Hebrew, “minḥāh”) primarily denotes a grain offering the Israelite worshiper presented to the LORD as a gift to show his gratitude and dedication (Leviticus 2; Judges 3:17-18; 2 Samuel 8:6; 1 Kings 4:21; 2 Kings 17:3). He would offer it to God to win His favor. In our passage, Malachi told his audience the LORD of hosts would not be manipulated by those in willful sin against Him.

This principle carries over to the New Testament. Hebrews 10:26-27 describes the severe judgment that God will apply to those who sin willfully then expect to cover it over with some sort of religious observance, such as temple sacrifice. God will judge His people with the same judgment fire that consumes the adversaries. However, the purpose of God’s judgment for His people is not to consume but rather to refine. This point will be made emphatically in Malachi 3:2-4.

The term for LORD (“Yahweh” in Hebrew) is the covenant name of God. That name speaks of God’s character and His relationship with His chosen people (Exodus 3:14; 34:6). In our passage, the prophet told his audience that the word came from the LORD, thus giving credibility to the message. He wanted the post-exilic Jews to know he received a word from their covenant partner, the LORD of hosts. It is He they vowed to follow in their marital covenant (Exodus 19:8). Now they are marrying a foreign god.

The term translated as host is “Sabaoth” in the Hebrew language. It means “armies” and often refers to the angelic armies of heaven (1 Samuel 1:3). In prophetic literature, the phrase LORD of hosts often describes God’s power as a warrior leading His army to defeat His adversaries (Amos 5:16, 9:5; Habakkuk 2:17). Here in Malachi, the phrase demonstrates God’s power as the supreme warrior who has complete control over all human affairs. As we will see in the next chapter, the supreme God will, in fact, judge all things and purify the “sons of Levi” (Malachi 3:3).