Malachi 2:3

Behold, I will corrupt your seed,.... Or, "the seed for you" (r); that is, for your sake, as Kimchi and Ben Melech explain it; meaning the seed they cast into the earth, which the Lord threatens to

Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

Ver. 3 Behold; note it well, and consider. I will corrupt your seed; take away the prolific virtue and strength of it, that it shall bring forth none or little fruit: your seed you make plentiful, but you cannot make your harvest so, nor will I, till you give me the glory I contend for, and will have ere I have done. I will rebuke or check your seed, which will surcease to grow thereupon: though your vices checked thrive still, your seed for harvest cannot grow up under my checks. Spread dung upon your faces: it is an expression of greatest contempt cast upon a person; it is a token of utmost undervalue and scorn: so I will expose you, as you have exposed my name to contempt. The dung of your solemn feasts; your most solemn days and feasts, which are by you accounted most holy, and in which you think you offer the most holy and acceptable sacrifices, shall be as loathsome to me as dung, and shall make you, who offer them illegally, as polluted, unclean, and loathsome as if I had thrown the dung of those sacrifices into your faces. One shall take you away with it; you shall be taken away with it, removed as unclean as the dung itself, as unfit as that to be in the temple, as fit to be cast out to the dunghill; so contemptible shall you be, if you lay it not to heart.

Malachi 2:3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, [even] the dung of your solemn feasts; and [one] shall take you away with it.Ver. 3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed] And so mar your hopes of a harvest; I will bring famine upon you, that sore judgment, worse than that of the sword, Lamentations 4:9, which yet is the slaughter house of mankind, and the very hell of this present world. By this scourge God will tame his prodigals, and starve their bodies; who, by the contempt of his ordinances, starve their own souls, Haggai 1:4. Either by immoderate drought God can cause a famine, Joe 1:10, or by immoderate moisture, Joe 1:17 "The seed rotting under the clods," &c., to revenge the quarrel of his covenant. Israel was plagued with famine for breaking their faith with the Gibeonites, 2 Samuel 21:1. What may they expect that keep not in touch with God? David knew that the natural cause of that famine was drought; but he inquired (though it were long first) after the supernatural. As Jacob inquired who stood on the top of the ladder and sent the angels to and fro? Genesis 28:13; so must we, in case of public calamities, ascend to the top of them, and see who sends them, and what is the cause of them, that we may cast the traitor’ s head over the wall, and he may return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him. For till then we may look that he should cut off our provision and victuals, as wise princes use to do from their rebels whom they have gotten up into a walled town. And spread dung upon your faces] Cast contempt upon you, and cover you with confusion; make you to stink above ground, so that men shall shun and abhor your company. This is another fruit of sin, and piece of the curse; and many wicked men are more afraid of it than of the sin that causeth it; as Chaereas, in Terence, not ashamed to deflour a virgin, was yet ashamed to be seen in a eunuch’ s clothes, the sign of that sin. True it is, that the best may have dung cast into their faces, as St Paul and his precious companions had, 1 Corinthians 4:13 "We are," saith he, "the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things" (περιψημα). The latter word signifieth the dung cart, that goes through the city, into which every one brings and casts his filth; to note that every fool had some filth to cast upon those worthies of whom the world was not worthy. And truly, all public persons that are faithful to their trust had need carry a spare handkerchief to wipe off dirt and drivel; which yet many times will hardly stick, as dirt will not upon marble, though it will upon a mud wall. "The wise shall inherit glory: when shame shall be the promotion of fools," Proverbs 3:35.

(3) I will corrupt your seed.—Better, I will destroy for you the seed—viz., of the crops. It must be remembered that because the people neglected to pay the tithes, the Levites were obliged to go and till the fields (Nehemiah 13:10). The LXX. for “seed” reads “corn.” Dung of your solemn feasts.—Or rather, of your festival sacrifices. (Comp. Exodus 23:18; Psalms 118:27.) The dung of the sacrificial animals was to be carried to an unclean place outside the camp, and burnt there. The priests, because they had profaned God’s Name by offering unfit animals in sacrifice, were to be treated in the most ignominious manner. And one shall take you away with it—i.e., according to a Hebrew idiom, and ye shall be carried away to it (comp. Isaiah 8:4):—ye shall be treated like it.

Verse 3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed] So as to render it unfruitful. Newcome translates, - "I will take away from you the shoulder." This was the part that belonged to the priest, Leviticus 7:32; Deuteronomy 18:3. Spread dung upon your faces] Instead of receiving a sacrifice at your hands, I will throw your offerings back into your faces. Here God shows his contempt for them and their offerings.

3. corrupt] Rather, reprove, margin A.V.; or rebuke, R.V. Comp. ch. Malachi 3:11 : “I will rebuke (the same word) the devourer.” God will wither with His rebuke the seed so that it shall not germinate, or shall not come to maturity. Thus the priests would suffer both in tithes and in offerings (Joe 1:2-13). The LXX. (reading ζְ ?ψεֹ ?φַ for ζֶ ?ψַ ?φ) render, ἀφορίζωὑμῖντὸνὦμον, “I set apart for you the shoulder,” that being the part of the victim reserved for the priest. Leviticus 7:34. Ewald, “I will rebuke your (the priests’) arm.” of your solemn feasts] If this rendering be retained, it will of course mean the dung of the sacrifices offered at such feasts. The R.V. has feasts in the margin, but sacrifices in the text. The figure is very forcible. It is as though Jehovah sees nothing in the droves of diseased and blemished animals that are brought to His altar on some great Festival, but the mass of filth and offal that necessarily accompanies the sacrifice. It is all one vast abomination! Flinging back in holy indignation the polluted offerings into the faces of the unworthy priests, He overwhelms them beneath the f�tid heap, and thus they are swept forth with it from the sacred precincts. Comp. Exodus 29:14, 1 Kings 14:10. one shall take you] It is more in accordance with our English idiom to render, with R.V., ye shall be taken. Comp. Isaiah 9:5 : “His name shall be called”; lit. “he (one) shall call His name”.

Lo, I will rebuke the seed for your sake - o, i. e., that it should not grow. He who worketh by His sustaining will all the operations of nature, would at His will withhold them.

A curse pronounced upon the faithless priests, 1-9.The condemnation of priests and people in Malachi 1:6-14, is followed by the announcement of a curse upon the priests, who have proved disloyal to