Malachi 2:10

Have we not all one father?.... Whether this is understood of Adam the first man, of whose blood all nations of the earth are made, and who in the same sense is the father of all living, as Eve was

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?

Ver. 10 Have we, we Jews, not all one father? either Abraham, or Jacob, (not Adam here intended,) with whom God made the covenant by which the posterity was made a peculiar people, separated from other nations, and on very weighty reasons forbid to join and intermix with strange nations. Hath not one God created us? the prophet speaks of that great and gracious work of God, creating them to be a chosen people, a nation formed to show forth his praise, ,18 Isaiah 43:1,7; and so we Christians are created in Christ Jesus, , and are in him new creatures, . Why do we? the prophet was not guilty of the fault, yet speaks as one of the community, partly to take off the envy of the Jews, and to cut off all occasion of quarrelling against his word, and partly to insinuate the sense he had of this thing, and the affection he had for them, though he reproved them. Deal treacherously; despise, so some, break our faith in the marriage contract engaged, so carry it disloyally, against the duty we owe to God’ s law, which equally binds us as our wives to mutual love, honour, and faithfulness; and why then do we take heathen wives, (it is bad if a Jew unmarried do it, but here now the case is worse,) Jewish wives being disliked, rejected, and so greatly despised? Why do we this against the bond of consanguinity? And do we sons of Abraham abuse thus the daughters of Abraham? Why do we so little regard the bond of religion? We are people, sons and daughters, of one God, who hath called us, separated us from the heathen to keep religion pure and unmixed; why then do we transgress thus? Every man; the fault was very common, among the people and priests too, and since their return out of Babylon. Against his brother: this wrong was done immediately against the wife, but the father, brothers, or kinsmen of the wronged wife are mediately, and by consequence, wronged; the whole family of the wife thus used is perfidiously abused, but brothers, as principal of the family, are named. By profaning the covenant; violating the covenant of God, the law, which approves no polygamy, and forbids marrying of idolaters.

Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?Ver. 10. Have we not all one father?] Here begins a second contestation, viz. with the people (as the former was with the priests), for their unrighteous dealing; where we have so many words, so many arguments. In brevitate verborum est luxuries rerum. If shortness of words is the heart of the matter. How many ones are here, and all to persuade to unity. See the like Ephesians 4:3-5. Let those that take upon them to persuade others to equity and unanimity learn to marshal their matter handsomely, and to fill their mouths with arguments, such as may fall thick, and prevail, being seconded and set on with intimation of heartiest affection, Job 21:4. Oh that I could somewhere meet with you both together, said Austin to Jerome and Ruffinus (hearing of their differences), I would fall down at your feet with much love and many tears, I would beseech you, for God’ s sake, for your own sakes, for weak Christians’ sakes, &c., not to suffer these dissensions to spread further, Hei mihi qui vos alicubi invenire non possum, &c. So Mr Bradford, in a letter to a distressed gentlewoman that was in a despairing condition, I beseech you, saith he, I pray you, I desire you, I crave at your hands with all my very heart; I ask of you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for his name, blood, mercy, power, and truth’ s sake, that you admit no doubting of God’ s final mercy toward you, howsoever you feel yourself. Oh that I could get words, said another holy man to his hearers, to gore your very hearts with smarting pain, that this doctrine might be written in your flesh! By this "one father" in the text is meant Adam, say the most interpreters, who was the common parent of us all, and the very stock and root from whence all mankind did spring. It is, therefore, a sin against nature itself and common humanity to deal treacherously against another, or to hide thyself from thine own flesh, Isaiah 58:7. This is to be more unreasonable than beasts, birds, and fishes, which love their own kind; and those that feed on flesh will not eat the flesh of their own kind. But our age overly aboundeth with unnatural man eaters, that (not only like a pickerel in a pond, or shark in the sea, devour the lesser fishes of another alloy, but also) eat up God’ s people as they eat bread, Psalms 14:5, make no more conscience, nay, take as much content in undoing a poor brother as in eating a meal’ s meat when they are hungry; they make but a breakfast of a whole representative nation; as those gunpowder papists designed to do.

(10-17) The prophet now rebukes the two great sins of the nation at this time: (1) marriage with idolatresses; (2) divorce of the first (Israelitish) wife. He introduces this rebuke by a general statement, similar to that of Mal 1:2.

Verse 10. Have we not all one Father?] From this to Malachi 2:16 the prophet censures the marriages of Israelites with strange women, which the law had forbidden, Deuteronomy 7:3. And also divorces, which seem to have been multiplied for the purpose of contracting these prohibited marriages.-Newcome. Why do we deal treacherously] Gain the affections of the daughter of a brother Jew, and then profane the covenant of marriage, held sacred among our fathers, by putting away this same wife and daughter! How wicked, cruel, and inhuman!

Ch. Malachi 2:10-16. Rebuke of the People for Heathen Marriages and Divorce The transition from the former section is less abrupt than at first sight it seems to be. The people at large are now addressed directly, and not merely incidentally as before (Malachi 1:14); but the priests are still clearly in view, both as probably themselves guilty of the sin denounced (comp. Ezra 10:18; Nehemiah 13:28), and as conniving at it by withholding or wresting the sentence of the Law against it (Malachi 2:8-9). From the Covenant too with Levi (Malachi 2:8) the transition is natural to the wider Covenant with the fathers (Malachi 2:10). The prophet lays down (Malachi 2:10) the principle on which the whole rebuke rests; and then deals with their transgression of it, first by heathen marriages (Malachi 2:11-12), and secondly, as a consequence of this, by the divorce of their lawful wives (Malachi 2:13-16). The word deal-treacherously is a key-word to the section. See Malachi 2:10-11; Malachi 2:14-16.

Have we not all one Father? - o Hath not one God created us? - Malachi turns abruptly to another offence, in which also the priests set an evil example, the capricious dismissal of their Hebrew wives

OF MIXED AND OF DIVORCE, Malachi 2:10-16.With Malachi 2:10, begins a new section, which, until quite recently, has been universally interpreted as dealing with marriage alliances between Jews and