The priests are sharply reproved for neglecting their covenant. The evil
of marrying with idolaters: and too easily putting away their wives.
2:1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you.
2:2. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give
glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you,
and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have
not laid it to heart.
2:3. Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your
face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it.
I will cast the shoulder to you... I will cast away the shoulder, which
in the law was appointed to be your portion, and fling it at you in my
anger: and will reject both you and your festivals like dung.
2:4. And you shall know that I sent you this commandment, that my
covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
2:5. My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave him fear:
and he feared me, and he was afraid before my name.
2:6. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in
his lips: he walked with me in peace, and in equity, and turned many
away from iniquity.
2:7. For the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall
seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.
The angel... Viz., the minister and messenger.
2:8. But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to
stumble at the law: you have made void the covenant of Levi, saith the
Lord of hosts.
2:9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all
people, as you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the
law.
2:10. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why then
doth every one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our
fathers?
2:11. Juda hath transgressed, and abomination hath been committed in
Israel, and in Jerusalem: for Juda hath profaned the holiness of the
Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
2:12. The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both the
master, and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that
offereth an offering to the Lord of hosts.
2:13. And this again have you done, you have covered the altar of the
Lord with tears, with weeping, and bellowing, so that I have no more a
regard to sacrifice, neither do I accept any atonement at your hands.
With tears... Viz., by occasion of your wives, whom you have put away:
and who came to weep and lament before the altar.
2:14. And you have said: For what cause? Because the Lord hath been
witness between thee, and the wife of thy youth, whom thou hast
despised: yet she was thy partner, and the wife of thy covenant.
2:15. Did not one make her, and she is the residue of his spirit? And
what doth one seek, but the seed of God? Keep then your spirit, and
despise not the wife of thy youth.
2:16. When thou shalt hate her put her away, saith the Lord, the God of
Israel: but iniquity shalt cover his garment, saith the Lord of hosts,
keep your spirit, and despise not.
Iniquity shall cover his garment... Viz., of every man that putteth away
his wife without just cause; notwithstanding that God permitted it in
the law, to prevent the evil of murder.
2:17. You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said: Wherein
have we wearied him? In that you say: Every one that doth evil, is good
in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or surely where is the
God of judgment?