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النشر الإلكتروني

and the judgments]

CHAP. II.

I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

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.

4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away rom iniquity.

7 For the priests' lips should keep nowledge, and they should seek the aw at his mouth: for he is the mesenger of the LORD of hosts. 18 But ye are departed out of the ay; ye have caused many to stumle at the law; ye have corrupted the ovenant of Levi, saith the LORD of

osts.

9 Therefore have I also made you ›ntemptible and base before all the ople; according as ye have not kept y ways, but have been partial in the

W.

10 Have we not all one father? th not one God created us? why do deal treacherously every man ainst his brother, by profaning the venant of our fathers?

[which their sins called for.

11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the

NOTES.

HAP. II. Ver. 3. I will corrupt-Marg. "Reve," or rebuke "your seed;" i. e. offspring.1 spread (Heb. "scatter") dung, &c. And shall take you away with it-Newcome, shall carry (or ye shall be carried) to the same ce therewith."

"And

er. 9. Have been partial -Heb. "Accepted s" Newcome," Have respect to persons in the

er. 11. Which he loved-Newcome, "Loveth;" which Jehovah loveth.—Daughter of a strange -that is," the worshipper," says Newcome; aps it refers to one of the females attendant on dol temple.

er. 12. The master and scholar- Heb. "Him wakeneth, and him that answereth;" Bp., Lowth, e watchman and the answerer." See Ps. cxxxiv. Isa. Ixii. 6.

r. 13. Covering the altar of the Lord with i, &c.—that is, the tears and groans of divorced s, referred to the priests for decision.

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Ver. 15. And did not he make one? - Did not God make one wife for Adam ?-and wherefore one? that he might seek a godly seed-Heb. " A seed of God." That is, monogamy (having one wife) is more favourable to a religious education. Bp. Newcome quotes, from Madan's Thelyphthora, another rendering; "Did not one (God) make us? and hath be the residue of the Spirit? And what doth the one (God) seek? a godly seed," &c. But the prelate himself reads (by transposition) "And did not he (God) make one flesh? And (is there not) one spirit thereto? And what doth he seek?"&c. The text is certainly perplexed and obscure, and we dare not give a decided opinion.

Ver. 16. Saith that he hateth putting away-Newcome," Saith, I hate him that putteth away," viz. his wife, to marry another. For one covereth violence with his garment-or, "what he hath taken by violence under his garment."

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CHAP. III.

EHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righte

ousness.

4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

[forerunner promised

thers ye are gone away from wine or dinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But he said, Wherein shall we return?

8 Will a man rob God? Yet re have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: far ye have robbed me, even this whole

nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now here with, saith the LORD of hosts, if I wil not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; Dei ther shall your vine cast her fruit be fore the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

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13 Your words have been stor against me, saith the LORD. Yet ve say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

15 And now we call the proud 7 Even from the days of your fa- happy; yea, they that work wicked

EXPOSITION.

CHAP. II. (B) Farther reproofs to priests and people. This chapter continues to reprove the priests for their unfaithfulness in their office, for which they are threatened with curses instead of blessings, and to be rewarded only with ignominy and contempt. The great degeneracy of the order is then complained of, and they are again threatened. The rest of the chapter reproves the people for marrying strange and idolatrous women, and multiplying divorces with all their consequent distress, in order

to make way for such illicit alliances. (See Neh. x. 30, and xiii. 33, &c.) This part of the chapter is very obscure. Perhaps the sense of ver. 16 may be, The mas who puts away one wife, merely for the purpose of marrying another, and thas covers his sin under the cloak of law, is like a thief, who hides what he has violently taken under his garment, to conceal it There are no sins so offensive to God, as those which are covered with the mastle of hypocrisy.

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CHAP. III.

EXPOSITION.

(C) Predictions of the Messiah and his forerunner.-In allusion to the custom of Eastern monarchs sending persons before them to prepare the way, and remove all obstructions when they travel, John the Baptist is now introduced as God's messenger, preparing the way for the Messiah, who is here designated as the messenger (or angel) of God's everlasting covenant, which he comes to publish by his ministry, and ratify by his death, as had been long before predicted by the evangelical Prophet, Isaiah. (See chaps. xl., lii., liii., &c.)

What follows respecting the severe ministry here spoken of, though undoubtedly applicable to the Messiah himself, seems to have also a reference to the se verity of John's preparatory ministry, whose object undoubtedly was, in a great measure, to "refine and purify the sons of Levi." For when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to attend his preaching, he thus pointedly warns them against indifference or hypocrisy; "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He tells them that now "the axe is laid to the root of the trees," and (alluding to another

popular figure) that the great Person, whose fore-runner he was, would "throughly purge his floor, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 7-12.)

The following verses (in the very spirit and power of Elias) severely reprehend the crimes of all ranks of society among the Jews at this period; some being guilty of oppressing the poor and fatherless, with many other vices, and others even robbing God their Maker, by neglecting the commanded "tithes and offerings." This had already subjected them to the curse of God, withholding from them the usual fertility of their country. For this they had even dared to reproach the Lord, though it was the consequence of their own transgression.

In the conclusion of this chapter, however, a broad line of distinction is drawn between the righteous and the wickedbetween those that fear God and those that fear him not. For the former "a book of remembrance was written;" the divine Being had entered, as it were, a record of their piety-he had marked with pleasure their associations for purposes of devotion -he calls them his jewels, and promises to spare them "as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

NOTES.

CHAP. III. Ver. 1. The messenger of the covenant-whom Jews as well as Christians understand to be the Messiah. The ancient Jewish book Zohar says, "It is the angel of whom it is written, Gen. xlviii. 16. That angel is the Shechina, the Redeemer and Guardian of men," &c. Quoted, Smith's Messiah, 1. 345.

Ver. 2. Like fullers' sope-Heb. "Like the borith of the fullers." Mons. Goguet says, "With respect to the herb borith, I imagine it is sal-wort; a plant very common in Syria, Judea, Egypt, and Arabia: they burn it, and pour water on the ashes,

which become impregnated with a very strong lixivial salt, proper for taking stains out of wool or cloth." Orig. of Laws, vol. i., p. 132. Edinb.

Ver. 11. The devourer-that is, the locust, &c. Ver. 16. A book of remembrance.- An allusion to the records kept by kings. See Esth. vi. 1. Ver. 17. My jewels- Newcome, "My peculiar treasure."

CHAP. IV. Ver. 1. All that do wickedly—that is, all the impenitent and unbelieving. Rev. xxi. 8. Ver. 2. Gron up-that is, thrive like stalled calves.

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CHAP. IV.

EXPOSITION.

(D) God's judgments on the wicked. Predictions of Messiah and his forerunner. -Those judgments which are in the preceding chapter compared to a refiner's fire, in their operation upon true Israelites, are here compared to a consuming oven, in their effects on hypocrites and unbelievers. The incarnation of Messiah is then promised under the beautiful image of the rising sun-" the Sun of righteousness "when he arises "with healing under his wings," dissipating the shades and damps of night, and spreading light and joy and health around. But the late Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, has thrown a farther beauty on the metaphor from the following circumstance: Every morning, he was told, about sun-rise, in the Levant (particularly at Smyrna) a fresh gale of wind blows from the sea across the land, which, from its utility in clearing the infected air is called the Doctor. "Now (says Mr. R.) it strikes me that the prophet Malachi, who lived in that quarter of the world, might allude to

this circumstance, when he says, the S of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings." (Orient. Cust. No. 367)

The chapter, and indeed the Old Tes tament, closes with a farther prediction respecting John the Baptist under the name Elijah, because, as an angelic interpreter explains it, he was to go before Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke i. li. His mission was to prepare the way of Messiah, as we read in the preceding chap ter; to put an end to their dissensions and sectarian quarrels, which John endea voured to do, by showing the people that they were all sinners before God, and stood equally in need of the grace of repentance (Luke iii. 7-14.): and, instrumentally, to convert both old and young, fathers and children, to the obe dience of the just. Many individuals were converted, and were remarkably pro tected from the threatened curse; nation-the great mass of the people of all classes remained obdurate and impenitent. The curse came and swept them all away.

NOTES-Chap. IV. Con.

Ver. 5. Elijah the prophet-that is, a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah. (See Expos.) So Messiah himself was often promised under the name of David.

Ver. 6. The heart of the fathers to the children, &c.—that is, to reconcile the people to each other.

but the

So the author of Ecclesiasticus seems to have understood it, Ecclus. xlviii. 10, 11. But Newcome Chandler render it, "The heart of the fathers with the children, and the heart of the children with the fathers." See Luke i. 17.-Smite the earth-Newcome, "The land." So Chandler, Boothroyd, &c.

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END OF THE PROPHETS,

ON PROPHECY.

IN the Introduction to our first Volume, when speaking of the Evidences of Revealed Religion (p.iv.), we merely named the important topics of Miracles and Prophecy, promising to revert thereto. We did so, as to the former, in our Introduction to the Book of Exodus (p. 171), and having now gone through the Prophets, this seems the proper place to consider the arguments arising from the fulfilment of their predictions.

In examining writings of two or three thousand years old, we may naturally expect to meet with difficulties from their age only, and these are necessarily increased by the symbolical language in which those predictions are generally conveyed: but the principal difficulty arises from the uncertainty attending ancient chronology. See Note on Daniel ix. 25.

Of the prophecies in the Old Testament, those relating to God's chosen people, and to Messiah, are by far the most interesting; and of them, those which confine their accomplishment within a certain period, are the most striking. Such was that to Abraham, that his seed should sojourn in the land of Canaan 400 years, and should be enslaved and evil entreated, and that afterwards they should be avenged of their enemies, and possess the land wherein they were strangers, as they did above 1000 years. These are circumstances that cannot reasonably be referred to any cause short of the divine prescience. (Compare Gen. xv. 13, with Acts vii. 6.) Again, toward the close of that period, it was predicted that they should go into captivity in Babylon for 70 years, and afterwards return, and rebuild their temple and city, and dwell long therein; Jer. xxv. 11, 21. These were circumstances as punctually fulfilled as they were unlikely to occur, and lead us to look confidently to a farther accomplishment of all that may yet remain unfulfilled.

The Prophecy of Daniel's "Seventy weeks," or 490 years (chap. ix. 24-27), whether it be reckoned from the first decree of Artaxerxes, 467 years before Christ, or from the second decree, as we have done, about 12 years later, falls within the period of Christ's death and if it be not accomplished, the Jews are hereby cut off from all future hopes of a Messiah.*

The prophecies of this illustrious personage are far too numerous to be here recapitulated. They respect the divinity of his character; his birth, life, death, resurrection, and future triumph. + We shall only remind our readers of two or three that have been already considered in our Exposition and Notes; namely, Psalm xxii, and Isaiah, chap. lii. and liii., which speak most explicitly of our Saviour's humiliation and sufferings; as Psalm ii. and ex. no less clearly describe his future kingdom and glory.

- Now, though it is in some of these cases difficult to fix dates, and adjust minute circumstances, yet the broad features of these predictions, and the great facts referred to, so strikingly correspond, that it is difficult to deny their divine authority. Thus we know Messiah suffered and died, and we have the most credible testimonies of his resurrection. We see the Jews (his murderers) now scattered upon the face of the whole earth; and we find those nations and cities whose destruction was explicitly foretold in the height of their prosperity, either reduced to insignificance, or completely blotted out from our maps.

Upon a farther consideration of this important passage, it has occurred to us, that the latter part of ver, 26, after the words "not for himself," should probably be read in a parenthesis, though the Hebrews had no marks, as we have, to indicate it; a circumstance which has occasioned much obscu rity, particularly in the Prophets. On this supposition, the covenant mentioned in ver. 27, may be explained of the covenant of redemption (which is more in harmony with the prophetic style); this was confirmed by the death of Christ, which, at the same time, virtually put an end to all other sacrifices; and the last week will not only include Mes*iah's resurrection, but also the day of Pentecost. This would, however, occasion some alteration in the pointing, which we may probably remark on

Matt. xxiv. 15. In addition to the authors before referred to, see Nine Sermons on this Prophecy, by the late Rev. Rd. Winter.

+ See a Synopsis of the Prophecies classified; particularly those respecting the Messiah, in the New Edition of Mr. Horne's" Deism refuted," chap.iv. sec. 3. and Note (L), p. 229.

We referred to Mr. Horne's first Edition of this work in the Introduction to our first volume; and are gratified to see this tract so amplified and enlarged as to make it a complete manual for young persons, on the evidences of Christianity; and we the more earnestly recommend it, as we are convinced that much of the infidelity of the present age originated in the neglect of this subject in the education of young people in the last age.

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