V. 1. And now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
Above they used poverty as an excuse for their avarice, therefore God threatens them here that he will send them poverty in truth. For what the wicked fears will come upon him. But everything depends on the administration of the word, therefore he addresses his speech mainly to the priests. For if the leaders err, how much will they err who are led? The priests
are called shepherds and watchmen, because the devil is always in the midst of the children of God, and always awakens miserly people and corrupters of the Word. Therefore, we too must always watch over the Word.
V. 2. 3) Where you do not hear nor will you take to heart that you give glory to my name.
3) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
To teach false doctrine in the name of the Lord is to blaspheme God. Paul says 1 Cor. 15, 15: "But we also would be found false witnesses of God" etc. All teaching that concerns the conscience comes in the name of the Lord. "To give glory to the name of the Lord is to teach the truth, what pleases God and what is the right will of God.
So I will send the curse among you and curse your blessing.
"The curse" or the dissipation of goods. "Blessings" are called in the Scriptures the gifts that we have through God's blessing. So now those priests called it a blessing when they had filled their houses with stolen goods. But it is a curse, he says, and I will make it a curse". I will make you poor.
Because you do not want to take it to heart.
You did not recognize sin, did not pay attention to it, even defended it as a righteousness.
V. 3. Behold, I will rebuke you with the seed, and cast the dung of your feasts in your faces, and it shall cleave unto you. 1)
More correctly [than in the Vulgate it should read]: I will rebuke you the arm, that is, the violence, the service and the honor of the offering and the teaching I will take from you. The prophet may have had in mind the law which gives the priests the right shoulder from the sacrifices of thanksgiving; but the dung was carried out of the camp. This, he says, I will reverse: the shoulder I will take away from you, and the dung I will throw in your faces. You seem to be clean to yourselves, as if you do not sin against me; you cleanse the outside on the vessels, but inside you are full of uncleanness, deceit, avarice, belly care etc. Therefore I will not only take away the priesthood from you, but I will also add disgrace, namely the dung that you will never wipe off. On the feast days the highest purity was with the priests outwardly, but inwardly the highest impurity, the highest avarice. "It shall stick to you," that is, I will throw you out with the dung, or: as you throw out the dung.
V. 4. Then you will know that I have spoken this commandment to you, that it should be my covenant with Levi.
Et scietis, that is, you will learn that it was my commandment that you should not do such things. - With Levi" means the covenant made with the whole tribe of Levi, the commandment given through Moses that they should teach rightly and not deceive anyone.
V. 5. For my covenant was with him for life and peace.
"My covenant." This is a prize of the good priests, to the shame of the wicked. The first priest Aaron was righteous.
"To life and peace," that is, to bliss and security. These are given to those who fear God, as Aaron and other saints are, who did not dare to utter even one syllable apart from God's word. The heretics do not fear God. Fearing God is not in human powers, but He says: "I gave him the fear" etc.
V. 6. The law of truth was in his mouth.
If a teacher is not corrupt, the word of God remains pure, while the hypocrites teach corruption and evil. Now that godly priest taught the law rightly and purely, he did not make hypocrites, he punished works that had a beautiful appearance of outward holiness and vain confidence, because the law teaches to recognize sins. You, who are priests now, have a false law in your mouth.
And no evil was found in his lips.
That is, he did not falsify, he did not twist the word, he did not add to it, nor did he take away from it.
He walked peaceably and sincerely before me, converting many from sins.
This is said of the way of life and the good example. Good doctrine is followed by good works; a good tree bears good fruit. Mecum, that is, "Before me." He annoyed no one, he did good to everyone, he did what he was supposed to do.
He did not seek his own, he shared what he had. Behold, here the prophet sums up all Christianity, which is faith, peace, and equity. "And converted many." With a priest thus constituted, the fruit and efficacy of the divine word follows, for there is the Holy Spirit. He turns away, if not all, yet many from unrighteousness.
V. 7: For the lips of the priest shall keep the doctrine.
God could instruct and justify by His Spirit whom He wanted, but it pleased His wisdom better to instruct and save those who believe by foolish preaching [1 Cor. 1:21]. The Word is the channel through which the Holy Spirit is given. This passage serves against the despisers of the oral word. The lips are the public receptacles of the Church, in which alone the Word of God is kept. For if it is not preached publicly, it decays, and the more it is preached, the more it is retained. Reading does not avail as much as hearing. The living voice teaches, admonishes, defends, resists the spirit of error. And the devil does not care about the written word of God, but when the word is spoken, he flees. For this pierces the hearts and leads back the erring ones. Paul says Gal. 4, 20: "I would that I were now with you, and that my voice might walk" etc. The living voice preserves the law and doctrine, instructs the ignorant, reproves the erring, condemns those who falsify. The scriptures bring forth only more blasphemies. "Doctrine", that is, the description and right knowledge of [divine] things, prudence. Therefore the lips of the priest are instruments of blessedness for others; and they keep the doctrine, not in their hearts, but in the hearts of those whom they teach, and those who are unlearned 1) will keep the law and the wil-.
1) The editions offer: psrksvti, against it the Hallische manuscript: inäoati, which is without doubt a reading appropriate to the sense. It would also like to be assumed xerptexi instead of perkeeti.
God's will and desire from them. For God did not send such a priest as a scribe, but as an angel and apostle who is to do the work of the Lord with words. Therefore, such a mouth and such lips are instruments of God. The books keep the law privately, but the lips keep it publicly, and open, not closed lips keep it, that is, when they preach.
V. 8. 9. But ye are gone out of the way, and offend many in the law, and have transgressed the covenant of Levi etc.
As if he wanted to say: You degenerate sons of such and such great fathers should be ashamed of yourselves, since you do in everything the opposite of what they did. - From the way," that is, that [, your fathers], - "you vex," you give your hearers vexation, so that they stray and go astray. And you err and make others err with you, you bring not the right opinion but your own and another's, even though you say the words completely, and so you pour poison into the people under the word of God, which is the gravest sin. You make the covenant of Levi in vain or you violate it, for the priesthood is promised to Levi eternally before the other tribes. You have turned priests into wolves, thieves and robbers, and are therefore unworthy to carry out this office any longer. For, it is said [Hos. 4, 6.]: "You have rejected me, 2) therefore I will reject you again" etc. As you have despised my name, so will I also make you despised and cast out among all nations, and will not accept your person, as you have not accepted the person 3) of my law. There is no respect of person with me as with you and all who do not teach purely.
V. 10. For did we not all raise One Father? Did not One God create us?
. This passage deals with divorce, and at the same time with the example of a
2) Instead of rspulistis we have assumed repMisti, because we consider this passage to be a citation from Hosea.
3) That we have here given kaeikw by "person" has happened partly because Luther himself translated this verse this way at the end, partly because the Hallic manuscript offers: pro 'tsoieur' psrsoosrn l6§6.
2174 xxvm, 303-sos. Interpretations on the prophets. W. vi, E-mio. 2175
To take a wife of a foreign nation, which he punishes as a sin, and especially that it has been approved by the teaching: it is right; because they said, "Did not Abraham, the father of us all, take a foreign-born woman as his wife? Why should it not be lawful for us also? Is not our God also the God of the Gentiles? "Why then do we despise one another?" Why do we not do what our father Abraham, Judah and others did? But the Jews sought kinship with the Gentiles in order to have peace, because otherwise they were despised by the Gentiles. And the Gentiles gave their daughters a large dowry; therefore they also ruled over the men against the commandment of God, as those who bring a large dowry are wont to do. But it would be better to understand these words in such a way that the prophet admonishes them not to take foreign-born women as wives, while they despised their relatives and the Jewish women, and that he tries to move them by reproaching them for being of one blood: "Have we not all one Father?" etc., and that they have One God: "Have not One God created us?" etc. And these are two excellent pieces that can serve to dissuade husbands from tyrannical behavior, namely, if they regard their wives as creatures of God, and that they have the same God with them. This is what Peter says 1 Petr. 3, 7.: Husbands should dwell with their wives with reason etc. Here he also raises his eyes to God, indicating that God is honored when the woman is honored as a creature of God.
Why then do we despise one another?
Namely that he does not want to take his daughter or sister as wife etc. XXX has two meanings, namely to despise and not to respect, as if it were nothing. If to a wrong is added the conviction that someone thinks it is right, then he not only despises it, but also thinks it is nothing. Thus the Jews despised their brethren, which served to desecrate the covenant of the fathers; not because the fathers established this covenant, but because it was established by the fathers.
came to the descendants; this covenant is the Law of God. Therefore, there is an extraordinary disrespect for the law of God (which is also called an abomination), not only among the common people and in the countryside, but also in Jerusalem, where the rulers and priests are, who despise the commandment of God that one should not take wives from foreign peoples.
V. 11. 1) For Judah has become a despiser, and abominations are done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loveth.
"The holiness of the Lord", that is, the law. Now the prophet looks with an attentive eye at the corrupters of the law. For if the teaching remains pure, there is hope that life can be easily improved. The rays of the sun remain pure, even if they fall on the dung and shine. And God keeps something holy among us, by which we are sanctified if we have fallen, that is His word, by which we immediately condemn the error we have committed, and the Lord magnifies it. "Whom he loveth," namely, the Lord. But you have no conscience about it, because you falsify it in this way.
And boo with a strange god's daughter.
That is, he took the daughter of a foreign god to be his wife, and as a husband kept himself to her, recognizing her as his wife, namely, one who is of a foreign nation and is godless.
V. 12 But the Lord will cut off the one who does this from the tabernacle of Jacob, both master and disciple.
The Lord will destroy or cut off the man, so great is the guilt of falsifying the word, and no mercy is to be observed against such people. But in an evil work one must be patient with brothers and instruct them with gentleness. XX means a "master" or the one who awakens; it indicates the chiefs. Some explain these two expressions and by: op-.
1) This Vermahl is missing in Weimar's.
ponens et respondens, others: auctor et exe- cutor.... The Lord will cut off those who cut off his law, be they who they will, princes, people and priests.
V. 13. 1) You also do this, that before the altar of the Lord there are tears and weeping and groaning.
The Lord has willed that He should not be served and worshipped in sadness, but in gladness. Be joyful, he says [Deut. 26, 11.], before the Lord etc. By mourning the priests were defiled, but here all was full of mourning, because namely the Jewish women mourned because they were despised, and the Jews took wives from foreign nations; and from them the priests accepted sacrifices in mourning, contrary to the law. Thus does One Evil cause many. He says: All your sacrifices are defiled, and I am not given an opportunity to look at you or your sacrifices, which you think are pleasant and pleasing to me. In vain serves the god that vexeth his neighbor. It is said [Hos. 6, 6. Matth. 9, 13.], "I am well pleased with mercy, and not with sacrifice."
V. 14. And so you say, Why this?
Behold, the despisers and those who do not respect [God's word] also do not recognize their sin, yes, defend it.
Because the Lord hath put between thee and the wife of thy youth, whom thou despisest.
The Lord, he says, has sanctified the marriage state, and said [Gen. 2:24]: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother" etc., and has called the woman "a helpmate". That is, Behold the testimony and ordinance of God: the woman is God's gift; she shall therefore be a helpmate to the man, and the man shall cleave unto her with all his heart. But it is no small comfort for husbands and wives to have God's testimony. And they should look to this above all things. This is what the prophet says against the abandonment of women.
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
Since she is your companion and a wife of your covenant.
He explains what kind of a helpmate the woman is, namely a life companion, a woman of the covenant and the contract that God made between the spouses and that they themselves made with each other.
V.15. So the one did not, and yet was of a great spirit.
This is a refutation against the objection of the example of Abraham, as if he wanted to say: It is void that you say: The one, Abraham, has done it; he has taken a wife of a foreign people, therefore it is also free for us, and afterwards he has rejected her, therefore it is also permitted for us. It is exceedingly corrupt to imitate the actions of the fathers without being called by God to do so, and it is exceedingly harmful to teach such things; rather, one should imitate their faith and obedience to God's word. God wants to do and work different things through different people; this one should be the eye, that one the foot etc. Let each one look at what he is commanded to do by God, not at what another does. But they wanted to imitate Abraham, and said: The holy man, who is our father, did this; his spirit is not quenched, and we who are his seed have the same spirit. The negation must be applied to both assertions, as is usual in Hebrew. 2) And the prophet answers: "It did not take place that you could hold this against me. Search history, and you will see that it is not as you think. For Abraham did not follow the lust of his flesh, did not seek riches, as you do, but he did so because he was compelled to do so in order to obtain the blessing promised to him by God.
2) This sentence, which is difficult to understand, finds its explanation in the Hallic manuscript. In the Vulgate, the beginning of this verse reads: Nonne nnns keeit 6t resiännni sviritns ejn8 68t? About this Luther says: "This I would now read thus: Lt non nnn8 keeit 6t r68i<iuunr 8piritll8 6jn8. In Hebrew, the One negation negates both sentences..... The sense, therefore, is: it does not follow, or: do not hold out to me that the One, namely Abraham, has done this; and that which is left of his, namely Abraham's, spirit (that is, we), add: will not do it."
to obtain his own seed. For when he saw that Sarah was barren, he took a wife at Sarah's command; not a rich woman, not for kinship's sake, not for pleasure, not a strange maid, but the one who was in his house, thinking that perhaps through her would come to pass what God had promised before God had spoken about Sarah being the mother. So he did not do something forbidden, like you, but by command and by the power of God. And Abraham did not leave you his spirit, because you follow the flesh and seek riches. "Therefore beware of your spirit", keep what is said to you: "He will cleave to his wife" etc. You are commanded to take Jewish wives; abide by the word of promise by which the Spirit comes. God does not want Gentile offspring, but your offspring.
And let no man despise the wife of his youth.
That is, which you took in your youth. Some interpret according to the Latin text thus: Did not the One God make us all, even] the strange-born women? And they are 1) a remnant of his spirit. God willed that we should be left and few after the captivity, and what does the One God seek but the seed of God, that is, that we should multiply, even by whatever wives it may be.
V. 16. But let him who is unkind to her depart, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and let him give her a covering of iniquity from his garment etc.
This is another objection, namely that one is allowed to cast out the wives on the basis of the law. The prophet answers like Christ [Matth. 19, 6. ff.], one should not leave the woman, nor separate the flesh, but let it be one. And the text of Moses does not say: If you are angry with her, but [Deut. 24, 1]: If she does not find grace in your sight, and you find any displeasure (foeditatem) in her. But if anyone wants to divorce her, he says, he will be punished for the transgression.
1) Instead of sunt in our text, the Hall manuscript has: 8UMU8.
As if he wanted to say: If you want to do according to this law, which is given and set for the wicked, hard-hearted and unkind, then you shall also have the title that you are evil and wicked boys. For every one that hath put away his wife shall be accounted a violator and a wronger, a covenant breaker and a violator of the faith, in whom is no faithfulness and honor, because he hath done, not that which was right, but that which was not right. He shall wear this outrage and stain on his garment, he shall be marked to be known, namely with this title: This is he who could not bear the way of his wife. This stain covers him like a garment, as obvious and known as the garment. So Christ says Matth. 19, 8.]: "Because of your hardness of heart" etc. Therefore you are hard and stubborn heads and unpleasant people, with whom no one can get along. Likewise, the dress sometimes means the outward change. Therefore the opinion is: Outwardly you want to appear as a holy and good man, you have a beautiful skirt, but I want to draw it, and make it obvious that you are an ungodly, unkind, unloving person etc. None of the saints has repudiated his wife, but also from others in the people of God one does not read this, so that God also indicates by this history, 2) that law is only given to hard murderers and man-haters. But this is what the prophet punishes the most, that they not only acted wickedly, but also defended this by example and by the law, while this should primarily teach the knowledge of sin. But they wanted to excuse their sin by it, which is a doctrine of the devil. It was a great sorrow to Abraham that he had to reject his concubine, Hagar.
V. 17. You make the Lord unwilling by your speeches.
That is, you make the Lord displeased with you and ashamed of you. When the wicked see that they are doing well
2) Instead of deolarat should probably be read äeolarvt with the Hallic manuscript.
and they prosper well, but those who serve God suffer much adversity, they say that there is no God, or that He is unjust, or that He is a liar; they also accuse Him of His promises. Yes, even the saints in their zeal have often murmured thus against God. It seems that the righteous should reign, but the unrighteous should be servants, but the opposite happens. But the kingdom of God
tes stands in faith, it demands faith. And God comforts His own in the midst of tribulation, in the midst of death He makes them alive. Therefore, the words of the wicked are, "Where is the God who punishes?" etc. By this, he says, you make the Lord distressed. Reason has a wrong judgment about God, and therefore Christ says Joh. 16, 8: "The Holy Spirit will punish the world for judgment" etc.