originate with a weak and short-sighted man, but with the omniscient and omnipotent God; (see chap. i. 20, xxxiv. 16, lviii. 14; and also 2 Pet. i. 21, "for prophecy came not at any time by the will of man"). "Seeing" is a term which he frequently employs in the sense in which the Septuagint has taken it here; sometimes with a definite object, as in chap. lii. 10, from which the translators have borrowed the words which they supply, "and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our Lord," also in chap. lxii. 6, and lxvi. 18; at other times without an object, which must be supplied from the context, as in chap. lii. 14. But even if these analogous passages did not exist, the glory of the Lord must evidently be regarded as the object seen, from the fact that is too obviously connected with

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for any other explanation to be possible. The glory of the Lord is revealed, and all flesh beholds this glorious spectacle.

But what are we to understand by the revelation of the glory of the Lord? The expression is evidently founded upon Ex. xvi. 10, “And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they turned towards the desert, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud." The glory of the Lord, his glorious essence, of which the fire was a symbolical manifestation, was usually concealed by the cloud, because Israel was not yet prepared for its full revelation, that is, for immediate contact with the divine. Even their leader Moses was not; for, when he asked to see God without a veil, he was told that he could not bear the sight. But on this occasion, when it was of especial importance to convince the doubtful and murmuring nation, that God was in the midst of it, it shone forth more vividly than usual through the cloud. And the prophet announces here, that when the journey through the desert is repeated, and the people have prepared the way, this covering will entirely disappear. A new period is about to commence, when God will manifest himself in a far clearer and more glorious manner, and when the people will behold him far more distinctly, be much more closely connected with Him, and possess Him with all the fulness of his blessings, in a far more literal sense than has ever been the case before.

It need hardly be remarked, that the prophecy is essentially

Messianic. The return from captivity was merely a prelude and preparation of the true fulfilment. The extent, to which the glory of the Lord was revealed, was exactly proportioned to the extent to which a way had been prepared. The complete revelation was made in Christ, but the seeing was limited to those who had prepared the way, for only the pure in heart can see God.

We now return to the prophecy of Malachi.

Chap. ii. ver. 17. "Ye weary the Lord with your words, and ye say, Wherewith do we weary him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of judgment?”

In expounding these words, the one question to be determined is, who are the persons introduced as the speakers, in this and the second section ? The necessary data for answering this question, are most of them contained in the introduction. (1). There are many who, like Theodoret, suppose that the pious Israelites, having suffered severe afflictions and being vexed at the prosperous condition of their ungodly countrymen, had been tempted to utter these weak complaints, and to indulge these doubts with regard to the providence of God. This view originated in the indefinite terms, which the prophet applies to those, whose prosperity is the ground of complaint, whom he describes as ungodly, evil-doers, and proud; the easiest explanation of which is supposed to be that the prophet avoided the use of more definite terms from prudential considerations; since the Persians were rulers in the land, and spies were actively employed on every hand. But a whole series of arguments may be adduced to disprove this supposition. The superscription of the prophecy itself, burden, is sufficient to show that the people whom the prophet had in view throughout were not such as were tempted, and needed to be set right with tender consolation and gentle correction, but such as were thoroughly wicked in their hearts, notwithstanding all their outward show of godliness, and needed therefore to be terrified with threats. We have already shown that, in all his addresses, the prophet has precisely the same class of men in his mind. The persons, there

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fore, who are introduced here as murmuring and complaining must be the same as those who are reproved in chap. i. 6 sqq. for their contempt of God, in chap. ii. 8 for their apostasy from him, and in ver. 10 sqq. for their breach of conjugal fidelity. But even if the indisputable connexion, which runs through the whole, is not admitted, it cannot be denied, as we have already proved, that chap. iii. 7-12 is closely connected with the section before us, and also with the last. But the persons alluded to in that passage cannot be the truly pious. Like their fathers, they have forsaken the laws of the Lord (ver. 7), they have robbed the Lord of what rightfully belonged to him, with as much folly as recklessness (vers. 8 and 9); the land will become a delightsome land through their conversion, and only through that, whereas now, through their sin, it is for the most part what the land of the Edomites who have sinned against God and his congregation is altogether, a symbol of wickedness (chap. i. 4). But even if we confine ourselves to the two sections, it will still be evident that the hypothesis cannot be sustained. The nature of the complaints themselves does not point to persons who are truly pious. They are essentially different both in tone and spirit from such complaints, for example, as we find in Ps. xxxvii., xlix., lxxiii., to which there is an apparent resemblance. The strong expressions, "ye weary me" (chap. ii. 17), and "ye overpower me" (chap. iii. 13), lead to this conclusion. The haughtiness of fancied righteousness, whose imaginary claims remain unsatisfied, is very conspicuous. Moreover, the truly pious are expressly distinguished from the speakers, and contrasted with them (chap. iii. 16). That the speakers themselves, and not those of whom they complain, are pointed out in the reply, as objects of the divine judgments, is too apparent to be overlooked. For instance, those who are represented in chap. iii. 2 as unable to endure the day of the coming of the messenger of the covenant, are the same as those who seek him according to ver. 1. Again, the words "I draw near to you to judgment," form an evident antithesis to the judgment on the strangers, for which the speakers had been longing. "That I am the God of righteousness will very soon be apparent, not, however, on those whom ye call evil-doers, but on you, who are the greatest evildoers of all." Lastly, this hypothesis pre-supposes a very different

state of things from that which actually existed in the nation at the period referred to. The condition of the colony was altogether so wretched and poor, that we cannot imagine even the wicked to have enjoyed sufficient prosperity, to tempt the pious to utter such bitter lamentations. Even apart from the fact that the use of instead of leads to the conclusion that the heathen are alluded to, and that this is still more strongly indicated in the evident antithesis, already pointed out, to the expression "all the heathen call you blessed" in ver. 12, how could the words, "they prove God and are delivered," in chap. iii. 15, possibly apply to the ungodly in Israel?

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(2). The opinion entertained by those who imagine that the complaints are uttered by the whole nation, which is in trouble on account of its own misfortunes and the prosperity of the heathen, is much nearer the truth. This was the view entertained by Jerome, who was much more correct than his predecessors and the greater part of his followers, though he erred in this, that he failed to distinguish between weakness of faith and proud murmuring against God, and consequently compared the complaints alluded to here to those contained in Ps. lxxiii. In his commentary on our passage he says, "the people who had returned from Babylon, seeing all the nations round about, and the Babylonians themselves, who worshipped idols, abounding in wealth, strong in their bodies, and enjoying all the things which are counted good in the world, whilst they themselves, who possessed the knowledge of God, were sunk in squalor, poverty, and slavery, were offended and said, 'there is no Providence overruling the affairs of men, but all depends upon the uncertainties of chance, instead of being regulated by the just judgment of God; or else evil things please him best, and he takes no pleasure in the good; for if all things are arranged by God, where is his just and impartial judgment?' Minds mistrustful of the future were daily asking such questions as these." But the objections, already offered to the first explanation, apply to some extent to this view also. For example, the contrast implied in chap. iii. 16 sqq. cannot be explained on this hypothesis. It would have to be restricted, therefore, in its application to a portion of the nation, and by the murmurers we should have to understand the great mass of the people, to the exclusion

of the truly pious. This view undoubtedly approximates very closely to the previous one, if we suppose that the wicked mass of the people far exceeded in numbers the small band of the truly godly. And it is apparent from chap. iii. 9, where the whole nation is charged by God with robbing him, that this was the case.

It still remains to set aside the erroneous view adopted by many expositors, who attribute Epicurean or Sadducean opinions to the persons attacked by the prophet. No doubt, the opinions they really held were such as would eventually lead to these, if they were consistent. But it is evident that, as yet, they were only in the germ, from the fact that, with whatever unwillingness of heart it may have been done, the murmurers continued to attest their fear of the Lord by offering sacrifices, and that among other things they fasted, and longed for the coming of the angel of the covenant. All this shows, that in the passage before us and in chap. iii. 13 sqq. they only manifested one side of their character, that there was still another element within them, which counterbalanced this one and impeded its development. The expression "ye weary" shows the greatness of the crime. What must be the wickedness of words, by which the long-suffering God, who has such patience with the weakness of his people, is, as it were, overpowered, and forced to display his judicial righteousness! On the words, "wherein do we weary?" Calvin observes, "the prophet shows that they have hardened themselves to such an extent in their pride, that they boldly resist every admonition; for they do not ask this question as though it were a matter of doubt, nor can we gather from these words, that they are ready to be taught. On the contrary, it is just as if they had come down armed for a conflict, armed, I say, with shamelessness and obstinacy, for there can be no doubt that they despised and even denied the prophet's appeal."

Of the expression, "Every one, that doeth evil, is good in the eyes of the Lord," the explanation is contained in the remarks already made. By those who do evil, we are to understand the heathen. In accordance with the essential character of hypocrisy, the only sin, which the murmurers are conscious of, is in others, not in themselves, and the sin which appears to them peculiarly deserving of punishment, is that by which they them