Malachi 2:3

I will corrupt your seed] RV 'I will rebuke the seed for your sake'; but the threat of a curse on the crops does not appear to be specially applicable to the priests. A very slight change in the Heb. which has been suggested, gives the admirable sense, 'I will cut off your arm' (cp. 1 Samuel 2:31); i.e. I will make you powerless: cp. Psalms 37:17.

The dung of your solemn feasts (RV 'sacrifices')] the offal of the animals slain for sacrifices, which at the three great feasts of the year would be very numerous, and a source of great gain to the priests.

The words rendered upon your faces do not necessarily mean more than 'in your presence.' To scatter offal and filth in a person's presence would be an insult to him: cp. Deuteronomy 23:14. Malachi seems to mean that the fastidious priests, who now hold aloof while the Temple servants clear away the offal of the sacrifices, will no longer meet with outward respect from the people who even now despise them (Malachi 2:9), and who will treat them with less reverence than the humblest of Temple servants. The last words of the v. are obscure and possibly corrupt. They perhaps mean, 'You shall be taken away from your place of honour in the Temple to the place where the offal is taken.'

4. Cp. Malachi 2:1. This charge is given to the priests that they may repent, and that so the covenant with Levi may be confirmed to them.

5. Lit. 'My covenant was with him; the life and the peace I gave unto him; fear and he feared me.'

6. Cp. the ideal priesthood described in Deuteronomy 33:8.

7. To Malachi, as to Haggai (Haggai 2:11), the law is not yet completely crystallised into a book, but means the priests' decisions on points submitted to them. Messenger] cp. Haggai 1:13.