Malachi 1:1

The burden of the word of the Lord,.... By which is meant the prophecy of this book, so called, not because heavy, burdensome, and distressing, either for the prophet to carry, or the people to bear;

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. The burden of the word of the Lord - the heavy sentence.

MALACHI CHAPTER 1 God by Malachi complaineth of Israel's ingratitude, Malachi 1:1-5 and of the profane disrespect shown to God's worship, Malachi 1:6-13. The curse of corrupt offerings; Malachi 1:14. The burden: see Zechariah 9:1 Nahum 1:1. Usually it imports sad threats against those concerned in it, though sometimes it may be no more than the message of God. Of the word of the Lord: the authority was Divine on which this prophet spake. Malachi: my messenger, (saith the Lord,) so the Hebrew sounds. My angel, as some, though they err who take him to be an angel conversing with Jews in the form of a man; but angel, taken in the grammatical sense, i.e. messenger, he was, and God's messenger, the last of the prophets sent to Israel before the great Prophet Messiah came. That he was Mordecai, or Ezra, as some conjecture without good ground, or who he was, of what tribe or family, the Scripture gives us no account, and we make no guess. His prophecy is of Divine authority, and so cited by three of the four evangelists, Matthew 11:10 Mark 1:2 Luke 1:16; and by St. Paul, Romans 9:13.

Malachi 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.Ver. 1. The burden] That is, the burdenous prophecy (as Tremellius renders it): a burden, as, 1. Enjoined and imposed upon the prophet to utter, to cry aloud and not spare, to lift up his voice as a trumpet, &c., straining every vein in his heart to do it; declaiming lustily against sin and sinners, and proclaiming hell-fire for them in case they amend not. This is a business of some burden, onus ipsis etiam Angelis tremendum. This was typified in the staffrings that were made to continue upon the ark; the Kohathites’ shoulders felt wherefore. If God had not helped those Levites they could never have borne the ark, 1 Chronicles 15:26. St Paul was very sensible of the ministerial burden rolling upon him daily, 2 Corinthians 11:28. And Latimer leaped when lighted of his bishopric. 2. As burdening the people with their sins, and breathing out threatenings for the same; for sin (how lightly soever accounted of) hales hell at the heels of it, and procures Divine vengeance, which is a burden unsupportable. It brake the angels’ backs, and made the Son of God groan piteously then when he "bare our sins in his body on the tree," 1 Peter 2:24. His soul was heavy therewith even to death; and had he not had the better shoulders, had not God laid help on one that was mighty (even the mighty strong God, as he is styled, Isaiah 6:6), he had fainted and failed under his burden. David complains that his sins were gone over his head, and, like a sore burden, were too heavy for him to bear, Psalms 38:4. That which comforted him was, that no sooner he had said Peccavi, I have sinned, but the prophet Nathan said, Transtulit Deus peccatum tuum, 2 Samuel 12:13, God hath translated thy sin upon Christ, hath caused thy sin to pass over to him, and (as it were) by a writ of removal, hath cast thy burden upon his shoulders. And this incomparable mercy David afterwards celebrateth, Psalms 32:4-5 "For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me"; the guilt of sin and sense of wrath quelled him and killed him almost; for his natural moisture was turned into drought of summer; he was turned into a very skeleton, or a bag of bones, a bottle of smoke, woefully wanzed he was, and wasted. But for remedy, "I acknowledged my sin unto thee," I fled by faith to the true scape goat, Christ Jesus, on whom was laid as a burden the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53:6 Romans 5:8, and thou presently forgavest the iniquity of my sin, that is, the guilt of it, that till then lay like a load upon my conscience, and, as an obligation, bound me over to condign punishment. Cain, for want of this comfort, ran roaring up and down, my sin, that is, my punishment "is greater than I can bear," Genesis 4:13.

1-5. These verses are introductory to the whole prophecy. God had shown His love to Israel; Israel ought to have made a proper return, but, on the contrary, Israel had abused God’s loving-kindness. (1) The burden.—See Notes on Isaiah 13:1; Jeremiah 23:33-40; Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 12:1. Malachi.—See Introduction.

THE BOOK PROPHET MALACHI Chronological Notes relative to this Book -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3607. -Year from the vocation of Abram, 1524. -Year since the destruction of Troy, 787. -Year since the commencement of the kingdom of Israel by the Divine appointment of Saul to the regal dignity, 698. -Year from the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 578. -Fourth year of the ninety-fifth Olympiad. -Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 356. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 397. -Cycle of the Sun, 5. -Cycle of the Moon, 4. CHAPTER I This chapter begins with showing the great and free favour which God had manifested to the Israelites, above what he had done to the Edomites, who are threatened with farther marks of the Divine displeasure; alluding, perhaps, to the calamities which they suffered from Judas Maccabeus and John Hyrcanus, (see 1Macc 5:65, and Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 9,) 1-5. God then reproaches his people, and especially their priests, for their ungrateful returns to his distinguished goodness, 6. They are particularly charged with sacrificing the refuse of beasts, 7-9, for which God threatens to reject them, 10, and choose other nations who will show more reverence to his name and worship, 11-14. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.] This prophet is undoubtedly the last of the Jewish prophets. He lived after Zechariah and Haggai; for we find that the temple, which was begun in their time, was standing complete in his. See Malachi 3:10. Some have thought that he was contemporary with Nehemiah; indeed, several have supposed that Malachi, is no other than Ezra under the feigned name of angel of the Lord, or my angel. John the Baptist was the link that connected Malachi with Christ. According to Abp. Usher he flourished B.C. 416, but the authorized version, which we have followed in the margin, states this event to have happened nineteen years later. Both the Hebrew language and poetry had declined in his days. Israel. - Here means the Jewish people in general.

Ch. Malachi 1:1. Title 1. burden] either burden, from its weighty character as a Divine announcement, or oracle as that which is ‘taken up’ (Exodus 20:17 : Numbers 23:18) by the speaker. See note on Zechariah 9:1 in this Series. Malachi] See Introd. pp. 7–9.

The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel - o “The word of the Lord is heavy, because it is called a burden, yet it hath something of consolation, because it is not ‘against,’ but to Israel.

Malachi 1:1 contains the title, which is similar to that in Zechariah 12:1 (compare also the common translation of Zec 9:1, but see comment there). Burden — See on Nahum 1:1. Word of Jehovah — See on Hosea 1:1.