Christ shall come to his temple, and purify the priesthood. They that continue in their evil ways shall be punished: but true penitents shall receive a blessing.
A precurser shal come before Christ. 3. The Priesthood, and Sacrifice of the new law are pure, 5. God who seeth al sinners wil punish them: 10. but if they amend, they shal receiue Gods benefites. 13. Not euil men, but the good please God.
1Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.Ecco che io mando il mio Angelo, il quale preparerà la strada innanzi a me. E subito verrà al suo tempio il Dominatore cercato da voi, e l'Angelo del Testamento bramato da voi. Eccolo che viene, dice il Signore degli eserciti.BEHOLD I send myne Angel, and he shal prepare the way before my face. And forthwith shal come to his temple the Dominatour, whom you seeke, and the Angel of the testament, whom you desire. Behold he cometh, sayth the Lord of hosts:Ecce ego mittam angelum meum, et præparabit viam ante faciem meam: et statim veniet ad templum suum Dominator quem vos quæritis, et angelus testamenti quem vos vultis. Ecce venit, dicit Dominus exercituum. 2And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s herb:E chi potrà pensare al giorno di sua venuta? E chi resister potrà a mirarlo? perocché egli sarà come un fuoco, che fonde, e come l'erba dei gualchierai:and who shal be able to thinke the day of his aduent? and who shal stand to see him? For he as it were purging fyre, & as the herbe of fullers:Et quis poterit cogitare diem adventus ejus, et quis stabit ad videndum eum ? ipse enim quasi ignis conflans, et quasi herba fullonum: 3And he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice.E siederà come a purgare, e mondare argento, e purificherà i figliuoli di Levi, e gli affinerà come l'oro, e come l'argento, ed eglino offeriranno al Signore sagrifizi di giustizia.and he shal sit purging, and clensing the siluer, and he shal purge the sonnes of Leui, and wil streyne them as gold, and as siluer, and they shal be •• fering sacrifices to our Lord in iustice.et sedebit conflans, et emundans argentum: et purgabit filios Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum et quasi argentum, et erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in justitia. 4And the sacrifice of Juda and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in the days of old, and in the ancient years.E piacerà al Signore il sacrifizio di Giuda, e di Gerusalemme come in antico, e come ne' vecchj tempi.And the sacrifice of Iuda and Ierusalem shal please our Lord, as the dayes of the world, and as the yeares of old.Et placebit Domino sacrificium Juda et Jerusalem, sicut dies sæculi, et sicut anni antiqui.
5And I will come to you in judgment, and will be a speedy witness against sorcerers, and adulterers, and false swearers, and them that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widows, and the fatherless: and oppress the stranger, and have not feared me, saith the Lord of hosts.E mi accosterò a voi per far giudizio, e sarò io pronto testimone contro i malefici, e gli adulteri, e gli spergiuri, e contro quelli, che fraudano la mercede degli operaj, e opprimon le vedove, e i pupilli, e i forestieri senza aver timore di me, dice il Signore degli eserciti.And I wil come to you in iudgement, and wil be a swift witnes to sorcerers, and aduouterers, and to the periured, and them that calumniate the hyre of the hyred man, the widowes, and pupils, and oppresse the stranger, nor haue feared me, sayth the Lord of hosts.Et accedam ad vos in judicio, et ero testis velox maleficis, et adulteris, et perjuris, et qui calumniantur mercedem mercenarii, viduas et pupillos, et opprimunt peregrinum, nec timuerunt me, dicit Dominus exercituum. 6For I am the Lord, and I change not: and you the sons of Jacob are not consumed.Perocché io sono il Signore, e sono immutabile. E voi figliuoli di Giacobbe non siete stati consunti.For I the Lord, and I am not changed: and ye sonnes of Iacob are not consumed.Ego enim Dominus, et non mutor: et vos filii Jacob, non estis consumpti. 7For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances, and have not kept them: Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the Lord of hosts. And you have said: Wherein shall we return?Imperocché fin dal tempo de' padri vostri voi vi ritiraste dalle mie leggi, e non le osservaste. Tornate a me, ed io tornerò a voi, dice il Signore degli eserciti. Ma voi dite: Come faremo a tornare?For from the dayes of your fathers you haue departed from mine ordinances, and haue not kept them. Returne to me, and I wil returne to you, sayth the Lord of hosts. And you haue sayd: Wherin shal we returne?A diebus enim patrum vestrorum recessistis a legitimis meis, et non custodistis: revertimini ad me, et revertar ad vos, dicit Dominus exercituum. Et dixistis: In quo revertemur ? 8Shall a man afflict God? for you afflict me. And you have said: Wherein do we afflict thee? in tithes and in firstfruits.Debbe egli un uomo trafiggere Dio? Ma voi mi avete trafitto. E voi dite: Come ti abbiam noi trafitto? Riguardo alle decime, e alle primizie.Shal man fasten God, because you do fasten me? And you haue sayd: Wherein do we fasten thee? In tithes, and in first fruites.Si affliget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me ? Et dixistis: In quo configimus te ? In decimis et in primitiis.
9And you are cursed with want, and you afflict me, even the whole nation of you.E voi aveste la maledizione della penuria, e voi mi trafiggete tutti in corpo.And in penurie you are accursed, and you your whole nation fasten me.Et in penuria vos maledicti estis, et me vos configitis gens tota. 10Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and try me in this, saith the Lord: if I open not unto you the flood-gates of heaven, and pour you out a blessing even to abundance.Portate tutta la decima alla dispensa, affinchè quelli della mia casa abbiano da mangiare, e fate prova di me, dice il Signore, se io non aprirò le cataratte del cielo, e non verserò sopra di voi benedizione in abbondanza.Bring in al the tithe into the barne: and let there be meare in my house, and proue me vpon this, sayth our Lord: if I open not vnto you the fludgates of heauen, and powre you out blessing euen to abundance,Inferte omnem decimam in horreum, et sit cibus in domo mea: et probate me super hoc, dicit Dominus: si non aperuero vobis cataractas cæli, et effudero vobis benedictionem usque ad abundantiam: 11And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he shall not spoil the fruit of your land: neither shall the vine in the field be barren, saith the Lord of hosts.E per voi sgriderò i divoratori, e non guasteranno i frutti de' vostri terreni, e non sarà vigna sterile nelle campagne, dice il Signore degli eserciti.and I wil rebuke for you the deuourer, and he shal not corrupt the fruite of your land: neither shal the vine in the filde be barren, sayth the Lord of hosts.et increpabo pro vobis devorantem, et non corrumpet fructum terræ vestræ, nec erit sterilis vinea in agro, dicit Dominus exercituum. 12And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightful land, saith the Lord of hosts.E beati vi chiameranno tutte le genti; perocché il vostro sarà un paese invidiabile, dice il Signore degli eserciti.And al Nations shal cal you blessed: for you shal be a land worthie to be desired, sayth the Lord of hosts.Et beatos vos dicent omnes gentes: eritis enim vos terra desiderabilis, dicit Dominus exercituum. 13Your words have been unsufferable to me, saith the Lord.I vostri discorsi contro di me hanno preso forza, dice il Signore.Your wordes haue bene forcible vpon me, sayth the Lord.Invaluerunt super me verba vestra, dicit Dominus. 14And you have said: What have we spoken against thee? You have said: He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts?E voi dite: Che abbiam noi detto contro di te? Voi avete detto: Invano si serve a Dio: E di qual vantaggio è per noi l'avere osservati i suoi comandamenti, e l'aver battute maninconiosamente le vie del Signore degli eserciti?And you sayd: What haue we spoken against thee? You haue sayd: He is vayne that serueth God, and what profite is it that we haue kept his precepts, and that we haue walked sorowful before the Lord of host?Et dixistis: Quid locuti sumus contra te ? Dixistis: Vanus est qui servit Deo: et quod emolumentum quia custodivimus præcepta ejus, et quia ambulavimus tristes coram Domino exercituum ?
15Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up, and they have tempted God and are preserved.Dunque adesso noi direm beati i superbi, perchè fanno fortuna vivendo da empj: e tentano Dio, e si salvano.Therfore now we cal the arrogant blessed, for they that doe impietie are builded, and they haue tempted God and are made safe.Ergo nunc beatos dicimus arrogantes: siquidem ædificati sunt facientes impietatem, et tentaverunt Deum, et salvi facti sunt. 16Then they that feared the Lord, spoke every one with his neighbour: and the Lord gave ear, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that fear the Lord, and think on his name.Allora quelli, che temon Dio, se la discorrevano ciascuno col suo vicino. Ma il Signore vi pose mente, e ascoltò: e fu scritto dinanzi a lui un libro di ricordanza per quelli, che temono il Signore, e hanno in cuore il suo nome.Then spake they that feared our Lord, euerie one with his neighbour: and our Lord attended, and heard: and a booke of monument was writen before him for them that feare our Lord, and thinke on his name.Tunc locuti sunt timentes Dominum, unusquisque cum proximo suo: et attendit Dominus, et audivit, et scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo timentibus Dominum, et cogitantibus nomen ejus. 17And they shall be my special possession, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do judgment: and I will spare them, as a man spareth his son that serveth him.Ed eglino (dice il Signor degli eserciti) in quel giorno, nel quale io agirò, saranno mio popolo, ed io sarò benigno con essi, come un uomo è benigno verso di un figliuolo, che lo serve.And they shal be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I doe to my peculiat and I wil spare them, as a man spareth his sonne seruing him.Et erunt mihi, ait Dominus exercituum, in die qua ego facio, in peculium: et parcam eis, sicut parcit vir filio suo servienti sibi. 18And you shall return, and shall see the difference between the just and the wicked: and between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.E voi cambierete sentenza, e conoscerete qual sia distanza trai giusto, e l'empio; e tra chi serve a Dio, e chi noi serve.And you shal conuert, and shal see what is betwen the iust, and the impious: and betwen him that serueth God, and serueth him not.Et convertemini, et videbitis quid sit inter justum et impium, et inter servientem Deo et non servientem ei.
3:1
Challoner
My angel, viz., John the Baptist, the messenger of God, and forerunner of Christ. (Challoner)
Worthington
His purity and office procure him this title. (Worthington)
Calmet
Afterwards Christ himself shall come, for the ruin and for the resurrection of many, Luke 2:34. Hence threats and promises are intermixed. The evangelists read his face, making the Father speak, whereas the Son is introduced by the prophet, who however presently changes the person. It is all the same which person of the blessed Trinity speaks, as all act together. (Calmet)
Testament. The Messias, the mediator of the covenant with mankind, (Worthington) with Abraham, and Moses. The latter calls him the prophet; (Deuteronomy 18:18.) and Zacharias, alluding to this text, explains angel in the same sense, Luke 1:76.
Calmet
Temple. The ancient Jews were convinced that the Messias would come to the temple of Zorobabel, and be its chief glory, Aggeus 2:8. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
Their descendants put off the coming for some long time, though the prophet says presently, or on a sudden. (St. Jerome; Basnage 6:26.)
Calmet
Some take this temple to be the womb of the bless Virgin [Mary]. (St. Cyril; St. Augustine, City of God 18:35.) (Calmet)
Worthington
The Baptist was conceived, born, and preached first; and shortly after Christ appeared. (Worthington)
3:2
Calmet
Coming. This may be explained of [John] the Baptist, (Luke 3:7.) or of the second coming of Christ; though his first coming shewed the hypocrisy of the Jews. They would not acknowledge him, but sought his death, and brought on their own condemnation. (Calmet)
Haydock
Fuller's. Septuagint, "washers' herb." Borith is found in all the low places of Palestine, (St. Jerome) and probably denotes soda, (Jeremias 2:22.; Calmet) or fullers' earth. (Haydock)
Christ purified the religion of the Jews, or did what was requisite for that purpose. The people would not obey. Yet he established his Church in all purity.
3:3
Calmet
Justice. This is spoken of the Christian priesthood, which far excels that of Levi, Hebrews v., and vii., etc. (Calmet)
Haydock
Many Jewish priests embraced the gospel, Acts 6:7. (Haydock)
3:4
Menochius
Years. So in the mass we beg that God would receive the sacrifice, "as he received the presents of Abel." (Menochius)
3:5
Haydock
Judgment. He has answered (ver. 1, 2) the complaint of the Jews, Malachias 2:17. (Haydock)
Haydock
This he does here (Menochius) more pointedly. (Haydock)
Calmet
Christ condemned the world, as his spirit did likewise, John 16:8. He made an example of Jerusalem, which shewed that he would not leave crimes unpunished. We may also understand this of his last coming. (Calmet)
Worthington
God threatens to punish even secret sins, which are know to him alone. (Worthington)
3:6
Calmet
Change. Hebrew also, (Haydock) "hate or recommence." I do not strike the fallen. Did I spare Sennacherib? etc. Have I not protected the posterity of Jacob? How then can you say that I am indifferent about human affairs? (Calmet)
Consumed. Septuagint, "you depart not from the sins of your fathers. You have rejected my," etc.
3:8
Calmet
Afflict. Literally, "pierce." Septuagint, "supplant," (Haydock) or kick at, 1 Kings 2:29. But the term applied to Heli is different. Here it signifies to nail or irritate. (Calmet)
Worthington
Tithes: the payment is most strictly commanded. (Worthington)
3:9
Calmet
Want. Hebrew, "malediction." St. Jerome specifies the kind. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "and you obstinately turn away your eyes, and supplant me," etc. (Haydock)
3:10
Heaven; copious showers.
Blessing; fertility.
3:11
Menochius
Devourer; locusts and other vermin. (Menochius)
Calmet
Malachias came later than Aggeus, and probably speaks of a different famine, to which the Jews were exposed for neglecting to pay tithes. (Calmet)
Haydock
How many now work on holydays, as if all depended on their labour and not on God's blessing! (Haydock)
3:14
Worthington
Vain. Murmuring against God is blasphemous and unsufferable. When the Jews were punished by famine, for neglecting to pay tithes, they laid the blame on God, as if he took more care of other nations which had abundance. (Worthington)
Junius
Sorrowful: "humbled." Chaldean, "in mourning." (Junius)
Calmet
But is seems to denote downcast countenances, which our Saviour orders his disciples not to affect, Matthew 6:16. (Calmet)
3:15
Haydock
Proud. Septuagint, "strange." (Haydock)
Z has been taken for V.
Built up: have a numerous family, (Calmet) and abundance.
Tempted. Septuagint, "resisted."
3:16
Haydock
Then. Grabe changes tauta, these things, into tote, then. The Septuagint make the pious express the former sentiments. (Haydock)
According to the Hebrew, etc., the just hearing such blasphemies, doubt not but God will mark them in the book (Haydock) of his justice, and punish them.
3:17
Calmet
Possession; (peculium) the property of a slave. (Calmet)
Calmet
Such look upon the smallest things with eagerness. Hebrew segula, (Haydock) means some precious thing. (Calmet)
Haydock
Spare. Septuagint, "chose," etc. (Haydock)
3:1
My angel.... Viz., John the Baptist, the messenger of God, and forerunner of Christ.
3:1
S. Iohn Baptist is called an Angel, or messenger because he vvas to be sent vvith special commission from •od: and for his puritie in Angelical life.
S. Iohn vvas first onceiued likevvise first b•rne. and he first preached, and shortly after him our Sauiour came.
Christ is the Angel of the testament, because he made the Pact of peace betvven God and man.
3:5
In the meane time God threatneth to punish al euen secrete sinnes:
knovven •o him though not to other vvitnesses.
3:7
Concordance Zach. 1. v. 3.
3:10
Paying of tithes is most strictly commanded.
3:14
Concordance Iob. 〈…〉 v. 14. Isa. 5•. v. •.
Sinne of murmuring against God, is great blasphe mie and not to lerable: For vvhen they were punished by famine, for defrauding the Leuites of tithes, they blasphemously imputed it to God: as though he had not such care of his owne people, as he had of other nations, vvhich had abundance of temporal goodes.
3:1
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 23
… Ye perceive how in a little time the fruit of a tree comes to maturity. Of a truth, soon and suddenly shall His will be accomplished, as the Scripture also bears witness, saying, “Speedily will He come, and will not tarry;” and, “The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Holy One, for whom ye look.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.11.4
… Truly it was by Him, of whom Gabriel is the angel, who also announced the glad tidings of his birth: [that God] who also had promised by the prophets that He would send His messenger before the face of His Son,
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 9
… just as withal the Spirit, speaking in the person of the Father, calls the forerunner of Christ, John, a future “angel,” through the prophet: “Behold, I send mine angel before Thy”—that is, Christ’s—“face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 2.17
… in the whole course of Scripture, persons are styled sometimes men, sometimes angels. Those who hold this view will say that since persons are styled angels who are manifestly men, as when Zechariah says, “The messenger of the Lord, I am with you, saith the Lord Almighty,” and as it is written of John the Baptist,
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.14
… The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” The words, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” are written immediately after the narrative of Hezekiah’s recovery from his sickness, while the words, “Behold I send My messenger before thy face,” are written by Malachi.
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 19
… it is manifest that it is not to be received as the Father, but as the Son, God and Angel.
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 12.8
8. The Lord heard the prayer of the Prophets. The Father disregarded not the perishing of our race; He sent forth His Son, the Lord from heaven, as healer: and one of the Prophets saith, The Lord whom ye seek, cometh, and shall suddenly come
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 15.2
2. And concerning these two comings, Malachi the Prophet says, And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 11.3
… For the word says concerning them, “This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold I send my angel before thy face
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 19
… thy King cometh to thee meek, riding upon an ass, and a young colt;” another proclaims His second coming also, saying on this wise, “The Lord, whom ye seek, will come, and who will abide the day of His coming?
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 37
2. When therefore as well by the place, as by his garments, and by their concourse unto Him, He had delineated his character, He proceeds to bring in the prophet. For having said, “Why went ye out? To see a prophet? Yea I say unto you, and more than a prophet;” He goes on, “For this is he of whom it is written,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 32
… man is the subject-matter, but of this can be made either an angel or a beast. Does not this seem a strange saying? And yet ye have often heard it in the Scriptures. For of certain human beings it was said, “he is the angel of the Lord” ( Mal. ii. 7 ): and “from his lips,” saith it, “they shall seek judgment” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 6
… And now that thou hearest that he was “sent from God,” do not for the future imagine that any of the words spoken by him are mere man’s words; for all that he utters is not his own, but is of Him who sent him. Wherefore he is called “messenger” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 57.9
… The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This quotation is made up from two prophets, Malachi that is to say and Isaiah. For the first part: “Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee,” occurs at the close of Malachi.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.35
… and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament, whom ye desire. Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.25
… and who shall abide the day of His entrance? . . . for I am the Lord your God, and I change not.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 50.11
… For men are called Angels: the Apostle saith of himself, “As an angel of God ye received me.” Of John Baptist it is said, “Behold, I send My Angel before Thy face, that shall prepare Thy way before Thee.”
3:2
Mathetes † fl. AD 130 Epistle to Diognetus 7
… as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Saviour He sent Him, and as seeking to persuade, not to compel us; for violence has no place in the character of God. As calling us He sent Him, not as vengefully pursuing us; as loving us He sent Him, not as judging us. For He will yet send Him to judge us, and who shall endure His appearing?
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.13
… The divine word says that our God is “a consuming fire,” and that “He draws rivers of fire before Him;” nay, that He even entereth in as “a refiner’s fire, and as a fuller’s herb,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 5.15
… but does not consume , those who are without a material body, which needs to be consumed by that fire, and which burns and consumes those who by their actions, words, and thoughts have built up wood, or hay, or stubble, in that which is figuratively termed a “building.” And the holy Scriptures say that the Lord will, like a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap,
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.25
… “The Lord cometh like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and of gold.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 21.7
… Therefore, when we were cast down, a horn of salvation was raised up for us, and a chief corner stone, knitting us to itself and to one another, was laid in due season, or a fire
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 The Great Catechism 26
… but for all that, this melting away of the actual thing that was embedded in it to the injury of its beauty is a kind of healing of the gold.) In the same way when death, and corruption, and darkness, and every other offshoot of evil had grown into the nature of the author of evil, the approach of the Divine power, acting like fire
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… for He cometh like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers soap: and He shall sit refining and purifying as it were silver, and as it were gold.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 7.1
… and if it has in any holes, i.e., in the human heart, a lurking or resting place, or has laid its eggs there, or left a trace of its slimy course, do Thou remove from them all the foul and deadly pollution of this most noxious serpent. Take away the uncleanness their blasphemy has brought on them, and purify with the fan of Thy sacred cleansing
3:3
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.10.6
… “Thou hast the coals of fire; sit upon them: they will be to thee a help.” And in other passages he says, “The Lord will sanctify in a burning fire” and in the prophecies of Malachi he says, “The Lord sitting will blow, and purify, and will pour forth the cleansed sons of Judah.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.58
… “The Lord amending hath amended me, and hath not delivered me to death.” Also in the eighty-eighth Psalm: “I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges. But my mercy will I not scatter away from them.” Also in Malachi: “And He shall sit melting and purifying, as it were, gold and silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 13
… my heart .’ For since, when the strength is proved, it convinceth the foolish, they perceiving the cleansing and the advantage resulting from the divine fire, were not discouraged in trials like these, but they rather delighted in them, suffering no injury at all from the things which happened, but being seen to shine more brightly, like gold from the fire
3:5
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 15.2
… Because He cometh in like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ herb; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier . And immediately after the Saviour Himself says, And I will draw near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulteresses, and against those who swear falsely in My Name
3:6
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus i.21
… preserves the immutability and unalterableness of the divine nature, is stigmatized as impious, because it does not partake of the profanity of those whose notions of God are marked by impiety, but because it says in the supplication addressed to the Divinity, “Thou art the same,” it being, moreover, an article of faith that God has said, “I change not.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.14
… For, continuing unchangeable in His essence, He condescends to human affairs by the economy of His providence. We show, accordingly, that the holy Scriptures represent God as unchangeable, both by such words as “Thou art the same,” and” I change not;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.62
… And if he had read the writings of the prophets, David on the one hand saying, “But Thou art the same,” and Malachi on the other, “I am (the Lord ), and change not,”
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 4
… But what He is, He always is; and who He is, He is always Himself; and what character He has, He always has. For increasing argues beginning, as well as losses prove death and perishing. And therefore He says, “I am God, I change not;”
St Gregory Thaumaturgus † AD 270 Twelve Topics on the Faith 9
How could one say that Christ suffers change or alteration, when the Lord Himself says, “I am and change not;”
St Alexander of Alexandria † AD 326 Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius 2.3
… It is all one as if they said, that there was a time when God was without reason and wisdom. How, also, can He be changeable and mutable, who says indeed by Himself: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” and, “I and My Father are one;” and by the prophet, “I am the Lord, I change not?”
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 4.8
… and that He alone has power, because Paul has said, Which in His own times He shall shew to us, Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords . And further, they profess themselves certain that in the Father there is no change nor turning, because He has said through the prophet, I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 7.27
… He is Power, and not compact of feeble elements, Light, intermingled with no shades of darkness, Spirit, that can harmonise with no incongruities. All that is within Him is One; what is Spirit is Light and Power and Life, and what is Life is Light and Power and Spirit. He Who says, I am, and I change not
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 10.58
… and also that it delights in certain things . But this is merely a conventional expression to be understood in the same way as when God is spoken of as possessing body, with hands, and eyes, and fingers, and arms, and heart. As the Lord said, A Spirit hath not flesh and bones : He then Who is, and changeth not
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 11.47
… Whence can He receive it, if outside Him is nothing, and while nothing is outside Him, He is eternally Himself? And if He is eternally Himself, and there is nothing outside Him, with what increase shall He be made full, by what addition shall He be made other than He is? Did He not say, I am and I change not
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Deposition of Arius 3
… And how is He “subject to change and variation,” Who says, by Himself, “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ,” and “I and the Father are One ;” and by the Prophet, “Behold Me, for I am, and I change not
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.10
… They shall perish, but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail .’ And the Lord Himself says of Himself through the Prophet, ‘See now that I, even I am He,’ and ‘I change not
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.14.10
… wherefore the Word cries out against them, that ‘faith is not strong in them,’ but they are ‘waters that fail,’ and ‘there is no faith in them.’ But the God of all, being one really and indeed and true, is faithful, who is ever the same, and says, ‘See now, that I, even I am He,’ and I ‘change not
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 59
… For it was not, as some suppose, the very Essence of the Word that was changed, and was circumcised, because it is incapable of alteration or change. For the Saviour Himself says, ‘Behold, behold, it is I, and I change not
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 262
2. This absurd position can be easily confuted. The blasphemy is its own conviction, and I therefore think that, for one who fears the Lord, the mere reminder is enough. If He was turned, then He was changed. But far be it from me to say or think such a thing, when God has declared, “I am the Lord, I change not.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.19
131. Arius declares that the Son of God may change and swerve. How, then, is He God if He is changeable, seeing that He Himself hath said: “I am, I am, and I change not”?
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.15
… Job, and Zacharias, and Elizabeth, were called righteous, in respect of that righteousness which might some day turn to unrighteousness, and not in respect of that which is incapable of change, concerning which it is said,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 1.6
… Whence could such a creature come but from Thee, O Lord? Or shall any man be skilful enough to fashion himself? Or is there any other vein by which being and life runs into us save this, that “Thou, O Lord, hast made us,” with whom being and life are one, because Thou Thyself art being and life in the highest? Thou art the highest, “Thou changest not,”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.14
… Behold among His saints none is unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in His sight.” For we confess that God only is unchangeable, who alone is thus addressed by the prayer of the holy prophet “But Thou art the same,” and who says of Himself “I am God, and I change not,”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 1.6
… Again how if the Son is the Word and Wisdom of God, was there a period when he did not exist? for that is equivalent to their saying that God was once destitute both of Word and Wisdom. How can he be mutable and susceptible of change, who says of himself, ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in me’; and ‘I and the Father are one’; and again by the Prophet,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Counter-statements of Theodoret 1
… for the Divine is immutable and invariable. Wherefore also the prophet David says, “Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” And this the great Paul, the herald of the truth, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, states to have been spoken of the Son. And in another place God says through the Prophet, “I am the Lord: I change not.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
… But His nature is immutable and invariable, wherefore of the creature the prophet saith “He that maketh and transformeth all things.” But of the divine Word the great David says “Thou art the same and thy years shall not fail.” And again the same God says of Himself “For I am the Lord and I change not.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 3
“Life then does not die, but quickens the dead; for as the light is not injured in a dark place, so life cannot suffer when it has visited a mortal nature, for the Godhead of the Word is immutable and invariable as the Lord says in the prophecy about Himself ‘I am the Lord I change not.’”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 145
… He is by nature just, therefore He does not wish anything unjust; He is by nature true, therefore He abominates falsehood; He is by nature immutable, therefore He does not admit of change; and if He does not admit of change He is always in the same state and condition. This He Himself asserts through the prophet. “I am the Lord I change not.”
3:7
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Advantage of Patience 4
… off, so that, if it might be possible, the long protracted mischief may at some time be changed, and man, involved in the contagion of errors and crimes, may even though late be converted to God, as He Himself warns and says, “I do not will the death of him that dieth, so much as that he may return and live.” And again, “Return unto me, saith the Lord.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 147.8
… Moreover you are redolent of perfume, you go from one bath to another, you wage war against the hair that grows in spite of you, you walk through the forum and the streets a spruce and smooth-faced rake. Your face has become the face of a harlot: you know not how to blush. Return, unhappy man, to the Lord, and He will return to you.
3:8
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.18
… Another has defiled the land with usury and interest, both gathering where he had not sowed and reaping where he had not strawed, farming, not the land, but the necessity of the needy. Another has robbed God,
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 2.3
… there is no possibility of getting out of it. There is nothing for it but that you should at length be obliged to confess the mistake which you would not understand. But not content with these passages which are indeed enough let us inquire what the Holy Ghost said through another prophet. “Shall a man,” says he, “pierce his God, for you are piercing me?”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 7.4
… For if it can seem to you unreasonable that Mary could give birth to God who was anterior to her, how will it seem reasonable that God was crucified by men? And yet the same God who was crucified Himself predicted: “Shall a man afflict God, for you afflict Me?”
3:10
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.13
… through Him who “ascended up on high,” and set open the flood-gates of His gifts,
3:13
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.35
… And now we call the aliens blessed; yea, all that do wicked things are built up again; yea, they are opposed to God and are saved. They that feared the Lord uttered these reproaches every one to his neighbor: and the Lord hearkened and heard; and He wrote a book of remembrance before Him, for them that fear the Lord and that revere His name.”
3:14
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 147.2
… and announcing beforehand the distinction that shall then be made between the righteous and the unrighteous, speaks to them thus: “Return ye, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.28
… and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked suppliantly before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call aliens happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.2
… “He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and walked sorrowful before the Lord? Wherefore now we call the proud happy, for they that work wickedness are enriched, and they have tempted God, and are preserved.”
3:17
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.35
… And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, and health shall be in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and exult as calves let loose from bonds. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes under your feet, in the day in which I shall do [this], saith the Lord Almighty.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.27
The passage also which I formerly quoted for another purpose from this prophet refers to the last judgment, in which he says, “They shall be mine, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day in which I make up my gains,”
3:1
1. Behold, I send my angel. — The Prophet rises to the times of Christ for a twofold reason. The first is that in chapter II he has censured the vices of the priests of his age. Wherefore here he suggests their corrector, namely Christ the Pontiff, who in the New Testament was to establish pure and upright priests, and was to offer a sacrifice most pleasing to God. Thus Rupertus, Ribera and others. The second reason is that he may answer the Jews denying God's providence, and saying: "Where is the God of judgment?" For he says: Behold Christ the God of judgment, who shall soon be incarnate, and shall show himself in the temple. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoretus and others. Note that this is the voice of the Son of God, not of the Father, not of the Holy Ghost; for John the Baptist was not the forerunner, nor did he prepare the way before the Father and the Holy Ghost, but before the Son; for the Son alone descended in flesh to us. Whence also he himself in the Old Testament promised this same thing to the Prophets, and therefore appeared to them before the other persons, or revealed himself to them, as it were prefiguring his incarnation. It is added that thus Zacharias explains it, in Luke 1, 76, saying to his son John: "Thou shalt be called the prophet of the Most High: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways," namely of Christ, "who by the bowels of the mercy of our God hath visited us, the Orient from on high." Thus St. Jerome, Albert, Lyra, Vatable, Ribera and many others throughout. You will say: How then does Christ in Matthew XI, 10, citing this passage, say of John: "This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee?" For Christ could not say of himself, "before thy face" and "before thee," but rather: before my face, and before me. Jansenius answers in the same place that Christ, both as God and as man, is called in Scripture the face of the Father; because he perfectly represents the Father and his attributes and virtues, just as the face represents the whole man: for the same reason Christ is called the Word, the mouth, the image of the Father, and the character of his substance, Hebrews I, 3. Hence the Psalmist prays Psalm LXXIX, 8: "Show us thy face (that is, the Messiah), and we shall be saved." Galatinus proves the same thing at greater length in book III, chapter XII. They therefore give this sense: Behold I, the eternal Father, send my angel, namely John the Baptist, who shall prepare the way before my face, that is before Christ, who is my face, that is my image, my likeness, my representative. Whence the Father in St. Matthew XI, 10, turning himself to Christ, in turn says of John: "He shall prepare thy way before thy face," that is before thee, O Christ, my Son: for thy face is also my face. But this sense seems more subtle and symbolic, for "before thy face" literally means the same as "before thee"; for thus the Evangelist explains it, adding: "Who shall prepare thy way before thee." Therefore interpreters respond in two ways. First, that St. John was sent by the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as by the Son. For the works of the Trinity ad extra are indivisible, and common to the three persons, as theologians teach: wherefore what one does, the other two also do; since all three are of one nature, so also of power and operation. Wherefore the Fathers hold that Isaiah, chapter VI, 1, when he says: "I saw the Lord," etc., saw the Holy Trinity. Therefore when Scripture attributes any work to one divine person, it understands the others as well. Christ therefore in Matthew XI, 10, speaking to the Jews, lest he be charged by them with arrogance, was unwilling to say that he sent John, but assigns this to the Father for the sake of modesty; which custom he perpetually observed in disputing with the Jews, as appears in the first chapters of St. John, where he ascribes all his works to the Father. When therefore the Son here says: "Behold I send my angel before my face," the Father also says: Behold I send my angel before thy face, O Son, as St. Matthew says. And the Holy Ghost says the same thing: Behold I send my angel before thy face, O Christ: for the Holy Ghost sent John, as he also sent the other Prophets, and spoke through their mouths. Here therefore in Malachi the Son speaks, but in St. Matthew the Father and the Holy Ghost speak. Whence St. Jerome in chapter I of St. Mark says John was sent by the Holy Ghost, and he is understood when Christ says: Behold I (namely the Holy Ghost) send my angel before thy face, O Christ. For this reason Peter Chrysologus calls John the Baptist the mediator of the whole Holy Trinity, as if the three persons of the Holy Trinity contended for him and each claimed him for itself. Secondly, de Castro responds that the same divine person speaks here in Malachi and in St. Matthew, namely the Son. The Son therefore says here: I send John before my face, namely which is the face of my incarnate self. The same says to himself in Matthew, but to man made: Behold I the Son of God send John before thy face, O Christ, son of man. For although in Christ there is one person only, yet by virtue it is twofold: inasmuch as it sustains the divine nature, it is a divine person; inasmuch as it sustains the human nature, it is a human person. Christ God therefore speaks to Christ man, as to another from himself: because as man he has another, and altogether different nature from God; for in Christ indeed another thing (though not another) is God, another man. AN ANGEL. — It is of faith that this angel is St. John the Baptist. For Christ himself explains these words of Malachi concerning him in Matt. XI, 10, in the words cited a little before. Thus St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Remigius and all the rest. But why is St. John called an angel? It could be answered, because the Jews on account of his holy eremitic life thought him to be an angel, not a man, as Eusebius relates in lib. IX Demonstr. V, and St. Jerome. Nay, even from Christian doctors Origen, tom. V in John, held that John the Baptist was truly an angel incarnate. His arguments were two: The first, because John is said to be sent by God, John I, 6: therefore, he says, he existed before, not certainly on earth, but in heaven: therefore he was an angel. The second, because the same is called an angel here by Malachi. The words of Origen are: "Since we read Mal. III, 1: Behold I send my angel, we note whether perhaps one of the angels existing, is appointed as precursor to the ministry of our Saviour. And truly nothing is wonderful, that some imitators of Christ on account of love of men incarnate have existed, to whom it was sweet to serve his benignity in the same bodily likeness." He holds therefore that some angels were incarnate, that they might assimilate themselves to God incarnate, and serve him in the flesh. But this is an error. For that St. John was a man, not an angel, is clear from John I, 6: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John;"; and Luke I, 1, where his parents, conception, nativity, etc., are described at length. Thus St. Cyril lib. I in John cap. VII. To the first I answer that St. John was not before, but after birth, nay after infancy and adolescence, already a man sent by God, that by his preaching and baptism he might prepare the minds of men for Christ. In a similar way all the Prophets were sent to prophesy, whom it is certain were men, not angels. To the second I shall now answer. You will ask, why then is St. John called an angel here? I answer, because he was an angel not by nature, but by grace, namely first, he was an angel by office: for he was an angel, that is a messenger, of God to lead men to Christ. In a similar way Haggai cap. I, 13, in the Hebrew, and Malachi by his name; nay and all priests, Mal. II, 7, are called malachim, that is angels of the Lord of hosts. Secondly, because just as angels did not have infancy, but were created with perfect nature, reason, judgment and the use of free will: so also John had only six months of infancy; for in the sixth month visited by the Blessed Virgin, he was sanctified in the womb, prophesied, and obtained the use of reason. For he knew Christ in the womb of his mother, greeted him, adored him, and therefore exulted with great joy, Luke cap. I, 44. Thirdly, because he was most sparing in food, and lived almost without food and drink like an angel. Whence St. Basil in the homily On Fasting, says that the whole life of John was a continuous sort of fasting. Fourth, because he was most pure and most chaste, and a perpetual virgin like an angel. For, as St. Athanasius says in his book On Virginity near the end, "virginity is the life of angels." And St. Augustine in his book On St. Virgin, XIII: "Virginal," he says, "integrity is an angelic portion, and in corruptible flesh a meditation of perpetual incorruptibility." And St. Jerome in epistle 22 to Eustochium: "Immediately," he says, "when the Son of God entered upon the earth, he established a new family for himself, so that he who was adored by angels in heaven might have angels on earth." And St. Cyprian in his tract On the Dress of Virgins: "When you remain chaste and virgins, you are equal to the angels of God." And St. Ambrose in book II On Virginity: "Those who do not marry, nor are given in marriage, shall be as the angels of God. Let no one therefore marvel if they are compared to angels, who are joined to the Lord of angels." Moreover, St. Bernard dares to say in epistle 42: "A chaste man and an angel differ," he says, "not in happiness, but in virtue. For although his chastity is happier, yet this one's is known to be stronger." On account of which struggle and victory, St. Basil in his tract On Virginity, chapter LXXIX, says that the chaste are angels, not of the lowest order, but most illustrious and most noble. This chastity St. John, as it were, drew in with his nature from God, who caused him to be conceived from parents advanced in years and barren, from bodies, that is, purified from concupiscence, so that from them a pure one might be formed by miracle, as it were an angel. Finally, John suffered martyrdom for chastity, because namely he reproved the adultery of Herod with Herodias. Fifth, because just as angels perpetually see the face of God, Matthew XVIII, 10; so John from boyhood, withdrawing into the desert, devoted to holy contemplation with God and conversed with angels, and from thence imbibed and put on angelic freedom, constancy, charity, zeal, and perfection. For, as St. Chrysostom teaches in homily 32 on Acts, in the moral sense, virtue makes angels, indeed even gods and sons of God: "Therefore," he says, "if virtue makes angels, we can certainly make angels, and if not by nature, certainly by purpose and choice. For without this, there is no benefit in being an angel by nature: which the devil indicates, who was formerly an angel. But with this present, there is no harm in being a man by nature, as is clear in John and Elijah, who ascended into heaven." Again, St. John conversed with the incarnate Word, and stood by him and served him, just as angels stand by and serve God in heaven. Sixth, because he never lost the grace he received, because he never sinned, at least deliberately or gravely, but persisted in charity and in his degree as if confirmed in grace, like an angel. Austere life and severe penance in food, clothing, sleep, etc., led him to this. Wherefore Peter Damian, in a sermon about him, calls his life a continuous martyrdom. St. Chrysostom in homily 10 on Matthew calls it an angelic life. The same in homily 88: "John," he says, "lived on earth as if in heaven. For having overcome the necessity of nature, he performed a wonderful journey, always in hymns, always in prayers: to no man before he came to baptize did he offer his conversations, but to God alone always." Seventh, because just as superior angels teach inferior ones, and moreover purge, illuminate and perfect men; so John accomplished the same, according to that word of Gabriel to Zacharias the father concerning John, Luke I, 46: "And many of the children of Israel shall he convert to the Lord their God: and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people." And that word of the Baptist himself, John I, 23: "I am the voice of one crying in the desert: Make straight the way of the Lord," etc. Truly Blessed Peter Chrysologus in sermon 127: "John," he says, "is called a school of virtues, a master of life, a form of holiness, a norm of justice, a mirror of virginity, a title of modesty, an example of chastity, a way of the fathers, a pardon of sinners, a discipline of faith, greater than man, equal to angels, the sum of the law, a station of the Gospel, the voice of the Apostles, the silence of the Prophets, a light of the world, a precursor of the judge, a pathmaker of Christ, a witness of the Lord, altogether in the middle of the Trinity." Add that John was the first to preach explicitly the kingdom of heaven, as a heavenly angel, saying: "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Eighth, because in the desert he had no other teacher than the Holy Spirit, who illuminated him in the most sublime mysteries of God and Christ, not as a man, but as an angel, as St. Ambrose teaches in his homily On the Nativity of the Baptist, and St. Chrysostom in his 12th homily on John. There from the Holy Spirit he received understanding of Scripture, indeed the power of writing and speaking like a hagiographic writer. There he drew forth the wisdom and ardor necessary for so great a teacher and preacher of the world, to reconcile faith to Christ, and therefore he was like an angel, not just any angel, but like one of the Cherubim and Seraphim: for in sanctity and virtue, equally as in office, St. John surpassed all the lower angels. Wherefore he was almost adored and venerated by the Jews, as if he himself were the Messiah. See the ten privileges of St. John in St. Bernard, sermon on the same (if indeed he is the author), page 393. Likewise the 28 excellences of John, which our Barradius recounts in book VIII, chapters III and IV, volume I. Finally, St. John was the dawn of Christ and the Gospel, the morning star, the rainbow, the lamp, the bridesman, the friend, the precursor or forerunner, the voice, the witness, the prophet, the boundary of the law, the mediator of both Testaments and the clasp. Anagogically, the Hebrews, according to St. Jerome, believe this angel to be Elijah: because just as Elijah of old living was a type of St. John, who put on the spirit and zeal of Elijah, as Christ says in Matthew XVII, 12; so in turn John, going before and preparing the way for Christ, was a type of Elijah, who is to return at the end of the world, so that contending against Antichrist, he may prepare the way for Christ coming to judgment. So also Sebastian Barradius in volume I, book VIII, chapters III and IV, where he recounts the 28 prerogatives of St. John. Finally, the Author of the Imperfect Work, homily 27: "Marvelous is he," he says, "who in human nature surpassed angelic sanctity, and obtained what nature did not have, through grace. St. Augustine, sermon 4 On the Baptist: "Whoever is greater than John is not merely man, but also God." St. Ambrose, sermon 94: "He excels all, stands out above all, surpasses the Prophets, goes beyond the Patriarchs: and whoever is born of woman is inferior to John." Gerson, tract 4 on the Magnificat: "It appears that John the Baptist, first after Mary, is placed in the order of the Seraphim, in the place of Lucifer." AND HE SHALL PREPARE THY WAY BEFORE THY FACE. — Namely, he who is next to me, yet precedes me according to the flesh, and is made manifest to the world first. For this is "before thy face," namely, he who is next to another, yet goes before him and his face and precedes him. He shall prepare the way before me, that is, by his baptism, testimony, doctrine and preaching he shall dispose the minds of the Jews, so that, when I manifest myself to the world, they may receive me as the true Messiah promised in the law. This is, to prepare the way for Christ, and that before his face, that is, with him present, and already existing in the world through the flesh assumed. For he himself shall point out Christ, and indicate him with his finger, and shall bear witness concerning him, namely that he himself is the Lamb, that is the Son of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Note: The other Prophets were sent many centuries before Christ, to announce him as future; but John was sent to point out him already born and present, and therefore is said to be sent before his face. He alludes to legates, whom a king sends ahead like forerunners to a city, to which he himself is about to come, so that he may announce his coming to the citizens. For John performed this office for Christ in Judaea. Wherefore by Christ he is called not only a Prophet, but also more than a Prophet, Matthew XI, 10, because he, being familiar with God incarnate, demonstrated him to the world, indeed baptized him. Whence it follows: "And immediately" after John "shall come the ruler," namely Christ. Wherefore St. John was the horizon of the old and new law, because, as St. Thomas says in III part, Question XXXVIII, article 1, "John was the end of the law, and the beginning of the Gospel;" and, as Nazianzen says in oration 21, "the mediator of the new and old Testament." And, as Blessed Chrysologus says in sermon 91, "John was the clasp of the law and grace," namely, "at which Judaism ended, and from which Christianity began," as Tertullian says in book IV Against Marcion, XXXIII: "As Lucifer is the end of night and the beginning of day." TO THE TEMPLE. — Understand literally the material temple of Jerusalem. For to this place Christ came as an infant at the feast of the Purification, after His nativity and the offering of St. John; but truly and most properly after St. John's preaching, imprisonment and beheading, Christ came to the temple, and in it He preached and worked miracles, by which He demonstrated to the Jews that He was the Messiah promised here. Thus St. Jerome, Albert, Lyra and others. Hence it is evident against the Arians that Christ is the true God: for this temple was the temple of the true God. Therefore, since this temple was Christ's (for He Himself is here said to come to His temple), it follows that Christ is God. For temples are said only of God alone. Mystically, by this temple some understand: first, the womb of the Virgin, in which, as in the purest and most holy temple, Christ dwelt for nine months, while He assumed flesh from her, and celebrated the admirable mystery of the Incarnation in it, as in a temple. Thus St. Cyril. Second, Theodoret and St. Augustine in book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXV, interpret this temple as the flesh and humanity of Christ, in which the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, Colossians chapter II, 9. Thus Christ called His body a temple, saying: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," John II, 19. For Christ performed His priesthood in His body as in a temple, says Rupert, especially when He offered it on the cross to God the Father for the redemption of mankind. Third, St. Jerome with his followers understands by this temple the Church, which is the assembly of the faithful, which is the temple of God, not literal and corporeal, but mystical and spiritual. DOMINATOR (in Hebrew haadon, that is, that Lord of all, namely by antonomasia, who has full, eminent and transcendent right, dominion and empire over all things and all beings) WHOM YOU SEEK. — Some Hebrews, whom Remigius follows, just as they understand Elijah through the angel, so they understand the Antichrist through the Dominator: for they will desire him, and the Jews will receive him as Christ at the end of the world. But St. Jerome rightly refutes this. For the Antichrist will not be the angel of the covenant, such as Malachi says this Dominator will be. The Dominator therefore is Christ the Lord, King of kings, and Lord of lords, who immediately followed John the Baptist. The Jews therefore wrongly refer these things to their Christ, whom they think will come at the end of the world. For, as St. Jerome rightly argues: "I marvel," he says, "how the outcome of events does not teach them the truth. For what temple of his will the Dominator find, which has been destroyed to its foundations? Or if it is to be built by another before Christ comes, what more will their Christ do, since all things have been restored by another?" Therefore the Christ of the Jews will be none other than the Antichrist; for no other Christ of theirs is to come. AND THE ANGEL OF THE COVENANT. — In Hebrew berit, that is, of the covenant. For testament in Scripture often signifies a pact and covenant, as I said at Hebrews chapter IX, 45, and I Corinthians XI, 25. Whence the Zurich version translates: And the messenger of the covenant. Malachi here proposes and promises two angels: one bare, the other of the covenant: the former namely, the forerunner and herald of the latter. The former is John the Baptist, the latter is Christ. Whence of him he says: "And immediately," namely after the former angel, that is after John the Baptist, "will come to the temple, etc., the angel of the covenant," that is of the pact, or covenant, as the Syriac translates. Moreover, since there is a twofold covenant of God with men, the old or Jewish, and the new or Christian, Christ was the angel and messenger of both. For Christ sent by the Father appeared to Moses on Sinai, and through Him made the old covenant with the Jews, by which He promised them that He would come in the flesh, for their redemption and that of the whole world: for Christ was the angel promised in the old covenant to Abraham and to his seed, and especially to Moses. Wherefore St. Paul says in Galatians III, 19, that the law was given in the hand, that is through the hand, of a mediator; where many understand by the mediator Christ. Hence He Himself says in Isaiah LII, 6: "I who spoke, behold I am here." Wherefore the opinion of St. Basil, St. Cyril, Eusebius, Ambrose, and many other Fathers is, that whenever in the Old Testament it is said that God appeared, the second person appeared, namely the Son, so that He might prefigure His real advent in the flesh, and play a shadowy and typical prelude to it in a body assumed in appearance, as I said at the beginning of the Pentateuch, chapter XVI. Secondly, Christ was genuinely and properly an angel, that is, a messenger, intermediary and reconciler of the New Testament, that is, of the covenant which God made with men through Christ, by which He exhibited to them not earthly goods, as to the Jews in the old covenant, but spiritual, heavenly and eternal goods, which were foreshadowed in the old covenant and which He expressly promised to Abraham, saying: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," Genesis XXII, 18. For this blessing of Abraham was nothing other than the remission of sins, grace, justice, salvation, eternal life, which Christ conferred first on the Jews, then on all nations, and by this means He fulfilled all the promises of God made to Abraham and the Jews. And this is what He adds, saying: "Whom you seek," whom namely you, O Jews, eagerly await as the Messiah, redeemer and saviour promised to Abraham. Thus St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXV. Wherefore Christ is called by the Septuagint, Isaiah chapter IX, 6: "The Angel of Great Counsel." Furthermore, Christ was the angel of the New Testament or covenant. First, because He appeased and removed the wrath and enmity of God against men. He was therefore the angel of the covenant, that is, of reconciliation. Wherefore by Isaiah chapter IX, 6, He is called: "The Prince of Peace," and by the Apostle, Ephesians II, 14: "Our Peace;" and Colossians II, 14: "Forgiving you all offences, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He hath taken the same out of the way, nailing it to His cross." Secondly, because He truly reconciled a new covenant, the old Mosaic one being abolished, between God and men, by which God binds Himself to Christians to give them grace and eternal glory; Christians in turn bind themselves to God, that they will believe in His Son Jesus Christ, obey Him, and embrace His law, doctrine and life. Thirdly, because He descended from heaven to earth as an angel, so that assuming flesh and in Himself joining clay to the Word, earth to heaven, man to God by the bond of hypostatic union, as by the closest covenant, He might couple them together. Fourthly, because at the Last Supper shortly before His death He properly made a testament, containing His final will, and sanctified it by the institution of the Eucharist, saying: This is the blood of the new Testament, etc., as I said I Corinthians XI, 25. Fifthly, because Christ brought this covenant and testament to men from heaven as an angel, and instituted it on earth during thirty-three years by labouring, preaching, working miracles, going about through villages and towns, tiring Himself, sweating, in hunger, thirst, cold, heat, evangelizing; and finally He not only strengthened and sealed it with His blood, but also purchased and acquired it, as if by paying a price for such a reconciliation, such a covenant, just and worthy, and this for all nations, and through all ages, even if the world should last for millions of thousands of years, nay through all eternity. For this covenant the saints and blessed in heaven will participate in through glory eternally, for it leads them to heaven. Whence also the cause of heavenly glory was sanctified by Christ. Wherefore He Himself, having completed this covenant, first ascended gloriously to heaven, as if opening the way of the heavenly covenant, calling His faithful ones there, and inviting them to follow Him. Finally St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City, chapter XXXV: Christ, he says, is called "an angel, on account of the Gospel which He announced to men. For if we interpret these Greek words, the Gospel is good news, and an angel is a messenger." For what better news is there than to preach, nay to reveal and offer, the kingdom of heaven? Whence the Arabic Antiochene version translates it: messenger, or apostle of the testament. As a symbol of this matter, the angel announcing to Manoah the birth of Samson from him who was to be born, who was to be the liberator and avenger of Israel, and therefore a type of Christ, having completed his mission ascended in the flame of the victim to heaven, Judges XV, 20. For which reasons it is altogether fitting that all Christians and all men whatsoever should receive Christ the Lord, as an angel of the testament coming from heaven, and as a legate sent by God to them, with the greatest devotion, honour and love; let them render Him immense thanks, let them obey Him in all things, let them emulate His doctrine and life, and let them generously follow Him bearing the cross, assured that through it they will ascend to heaven after Him: let them give themselves wholly to Him; let them offer Him their whole heart, and let them immerse it in His heart and love. Thus eagerly the Jews awaited Him as their Messiah, as they still await Him. Whence Malachi adds concerning them: WHOM YOU DESIRE. — In Hebrew, chaphetsim; the Chaldean paraphrase, you desire; Zurich translation: In whom you delight; others: In whom you are well pleased. For Christ, as it were the repeller of all evils and the bringer of all goods, was most earnestly desired by the fathers throughout four thousand years. Whence by Jacob the patriarch He is called "the desire of the eternal hills," Genesis cap. XLIX, 26; and by Haggai, cap. II, 8: "Desired by all nations." Hence those sighs of the Prophets: "Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down," Isaiah LXIV, 1. "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. Let the earth be opened, and bring forth a Saviour," Isaiah XLV, 6. This same desire for Christ, when He was born, St. Simeon had, and other saints and the faithful. Whence concerning Anna the prophetess Luke says, II, 38: "She spoke of Him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel." Secondly, Arias thinks that here the Prophet answers the Jews saying in cap. II, 17: "Where is the God of judgment?" To these He answers: "Presently shall come the ruler," who shall be terrible to the impious, "and the God of judgment," but to the pious shall be "the angel of the covenant." Whence tropologically St. Bernard in a sermon to the Shepherds in the Synod: "The temple," he says, "of God is holy, which is you. The soul of the just is the seat and temple of God. The Lord in His temple works wonders, and gives forth oracles. Let the ruler whom you seek come to His temple, so that you may be able to rule over carnal desires and resist diabolical temptations. Let the angel of the covenant come, whom you desire, who shall announce to you His will and confirm the promised inheritance. Let His parents bring Him into His temple, namely His father and mother and brothers. Who are these? Let Him Himself answer: Whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My father and mother and brother and sister. Father, by begetting through the word of preaching, as the Apostle says: I have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Mother, by bringing forth through the example of holy conversation. Brother and sister, by chastely loving in the love of brotherhood. You are these parents, or ought to be." BEHOLD HE COMETH. — The Hebrews, Remigius, Lyra and St. Augustine lib. XVIII De Civit. cap. XXXV, understand these words of the second coming of Christ to judgment, whose angel and forerunner shall be Elias. But this sense is anagogical. For literally here it is treated of the first coming of Christ in the flesh and into the world, which is evident from what follows: "And He shall purify the sons of Levi," etc. For in the second coming He shall not cleanse them, but shall judge and condemn the impure. Thus St. Cyril, Theodoret, Rupert, Vatablus, Arias, Ribera and others. He says therefore: "Behold He cometh." The word behold signifies first, that this thing, namely the coming of the incarnate Word, shall be new, admirable and wonderful; second, that it shall be certain; third, that it shall be desired and joyful; fourth, that it shall be swift, as if to say: I seem to see our Messiah coming: behold He cometh, behold He shall soon be present. Vers. 2.
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2. And who shall be able to think? — Hebr. mi mekalkel, that is, who shall bear, who shall sustain, who shall measure, who shall contain, who shall comprehend? Whence the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: Who shall sustain? Pagninus: Who shall be able to bear the day when it comes? Ours: "Who shall be able to think of the day of his coming?" as if to say, Who shall be able to grasp and comprehend in thought such a mighty angel of the covenant, that is, God coming in flesh and into the world, conversing among men, preaching his law in the temple, sanctifying the sacraments and the Church, his power, wisdom, goodness, etc. Who shall conceive in his mind, or explain in words, the glory of that day on which Christ shall be with us on earth, or who shall embrace in his soul and recount in his mouth the charisms, virtues and heavenly graces and all good things which Christ shall bring to us from heaven? For the Hebrew mekalkel is derived from col, that is, all: hence the verb hilkel signifies to embrace all things, to recount all things. Note: The day of the coming of Christ is put metonymically for Christ himself, his day coming, or rather about to come. Secondly, according to the Septuagint, as if to say, Who shall be able to bear and sustain such great light and majesty of Christ? For in respect to him the sight of all angels and men, like that of owls, is dulled, darkened, fails. Who shall be able to gaze upon the sun of justice shining with clear light with eyes that are not averted and turned away? How shall the weakness of men, blindness such a brightness, fragility such efficacy, impurity such holiness, straw such fire sustain? For he himself is like a fire melting. Who shall not faint, not be overcome with amazement, fear, horror, and abyssal reverence at such loftiness, not be rendered lifeless? Who shall not melt away, not waste away, just as lead and tin melt and waste away before the most burning fire, in the furnace in which they are melted? especially while in such great humiliation, self-emptying, love, condescension, he contemplates and beholds the divine dignity and magnificence in Christ incarnate. This is the genuine sense. Wherefore less genuinely Vatablus refers these things to the tribulations of Christians and the persecutions of the primitive Church, which were most burning, as if to say, Who shall sustain the ardor of those tribulations? Certainly no one by human strength, but many by divine strength, supplied by the grace of Christ. AND WHO SHALL STAND TO BEHOLD HIM? — Septuagint: Who shall stand in the vision of him? Who shall be so hard and iron-like, whom the aspect of Christ shall not lay low and break? Who shall be so rebellious and cold, whose soul the fiery force of the eyes of Christ shall not seize and inflame? Thus Sanchez. Secondly, as if to say, Who shall be able to stand before him? Who, struck with fear and amazement, shall not fall down, seeing with his own eyes such great clarity and magnificence of Christ? Whence in Hebrew it is: Who shall stand in seeing him? Vatablus: Who, presenting himself to behold, shall stand? HE HIMSELF AS A FIRE MELTING. — The Arabic version: as a fire going; the Septuagint: as a fire of a furnace; the Zurich Bible: as a fire refining. Thus the Persians believed God to be fire, when they worshipped fire as God. Indeed the Stoics themselves think that God will be dissolved into fire, as St. Justin says in his Oration to Antoninus Pius. Moreover Plato held that God is in a fiery substance, as the same Justin says in his Oration to the Gentiles; and he adds: Plato calls the stars a fiery race of gods. But these are explored errors. Furthermore the Prophet compares the angel of the covenant, that is Christ, to the fire of a most ardent furnace, by which metals are melted, such as gold, silver, iron, tin, etc., so as to signify that His doctrine, law and grace will be burning and ardent. First indeed, just as gold is liquefied in a furnace; so Christ softens and liquefies the hard hearts of men by His grace, and resolves them into sighs and tears of compunction. Second, just as fire in liquefying gold separates from it other metals and dross; so Christ through tears and penance separates from the soul vices and deep-rooted lusts. Third, just as by this separation gold is purified, perfected, made to shine; so likewise the soul also. Fourth, just as by the force of fire gold is heated, indeed becomes ignited, so that it appears to be transformed into fire; so by the force of Christ's grace the soul is kindled, so that it appears like fire to inflame itself and others with the love of God. This is what Isaiah in chapter IV, 3, foretells: "If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, etc., in the spirit of judgment and in the spirit of burning." And John the Baptist, in Luke chapter III, 16, says he baptizes with water, but Christ with fire: "He, he says, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." For this reason at Pentecost He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the form of fire and fiery tongues, so as to signify that the Holy Spirit kindles them with the fire of charity, and gives them a heart burning with love and zeal, and fiery tongues. And Christ Himself in Luke chapter XII, 49: "I am come, he says, to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled?" Concerning which see St. Ambrose, sermon 48 on that Psalm CXVIII: Thy word is burning exceedingly. Fifth, just as fire gold, bronze and iron, although most hard, are not only softened and bent, but are also formed into a certain shape, for example pots, dishes, pans, etc.; so the grace of Christ forms these into Apostles, those into doctors, others into martyrs, others into confessors, others into virgins, etc., I Corinthians chapter XII, 4; and from one degree they ascend to a higher one, indeed to the very apex of virtue and perfection itself. For there are three degrees and states of virtues. The first is political and common, such as the virtue common to the faithful, who live honestly and piously according to the precepts of God. The second is more exalted, of those passing over and tending toward divine likeness, whose virtues are called purgative, namely so that prudence despises all worldly things through contemplation of divine things, and directs all the thought of the soul toward divine things: temperance abandons, insofar as nature permits, those things which the use of the body requires: fortitude effects that the soul, on account of its departure from the body and approach to heavenly things, be terrified by no difficulty or adversity: justice finally effects that the whole soul consent to the way of such a purpose. The third is of those already attaining divine likeness, whose virtues are and are called of a purified mind; such as in the blessed, and in some in this life most perfect: namely so that prudence beholds only divine things; temperance knows not earthly desires; fortitude feels no fear, and is ignorant of other passions; justice is joined with the divine mind, namely imitating it, by a perpetual covenant. Thus St. Thomas, I II, Question LXI, article 5, and Vincent, III part, book I, tract. On Virtue, distinction 7. Tropologically, the fire by which God purifies and refines souls is tribulation and affliction. For just as the filth of metals is removed by fire, so sins are removed by afflictions, as Vatablus says. Thus the martyrs, such as St. Lawrence, refined by the fire of torments, became the purest and most ardent sacrifices to God, according to that passage in Psalm XVI, 3: "Thou hast proved me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me." For this reason God permitted the fierce persecution under the emperor Decius, so that the virtue and piety of Christians, which had grown weak in the peace they had enjoyed under the two Philips, father and son, Christian emperors, might be aroused and sharpened, as St. Cyprian writes that it was revealed to him in lib. IV, epist. 4: "For know this also, he says, most beloved brethren, by a vision, that we sleep in prayers, etc. This persecution is an examination and testing of our sin; God wished us to be shaken and proved, as He has always proved His own: and yet in His trials He never failed to give aid to believers. Finally, to the least of His servants, etc., He deigned to command according to His goodness toward us: Tell him, He says, let him be secure: because peace is coming." Moreover, among the crimes on account of which this persecution came, the same Cyprian asserts in the tract De Lapsis that the principal ones were the negligence and greed of priests and bishops. Anagogically, just as fire consumes dross, so Christ at the final judgment will condemn the reprobate to hell, and will "burn them with unquenchable fire," as John the Baptist says in Matt. III, 12. Hence St. Jerome thus expounds: "He Himself will come as a refining fire: for fire will burn in His sight, and round about Him a mighty tempest. Then He will call heaven from above, and earth, to judge His people: rivers of fire will draw before Him, rolling along sinners. But the Lord is called fire, and a consuming fire, Deut. cap. IV, 24, so that He may burn our wood, hay and stubble." And not only fire, but also the herb of fullers. He Himself is a refining and consuming fire to those who sin gravely; but to those who commit light sins, He is the herb of fullers, so that He may restore cleanness to the washed. Happy and wise are those who in this life prefer to be cleansed by the herb of fullers rather than in the future, namely in hell, or Purgatory, to be refined by consuming fire. Moreover, St. Augustine in lib. XX De Civit. cap. XXV, refers this examination on the day of judgment to the good and pious alone: for these are the sons of Levi offering sacrifices to God in justice. Whence he concludes that on the day of judgment there will be "certain purgatorial punishments for some." Thus also Gennadius, patriarch of Constantinople, in Exposit. Concilii Florentini, cap. VIII, Contra Graecos, while conceding Purgatory after this life, but denying fire in it, and that souls of the just are purified by fire, proves from this passage that there is fire in it, and that souls are purified by it: for this fire, he says, refining and cleansing does not pertain to the blessed in heaven, as being most pure, nor to the damned in hell, as being incapable of cleansing and amendment: therefore it pertains to the souls in purgatory: therefore in it there is refining and cleansing fire purifying the souls of the just from light and venial stains. Thus he himself in tom. IV Biblioth. Patrum. AND AS THE HERB OF FULLERS. — In Hebrew: As borith of those who wash, namely cloths, that is of fullers. Whence the Chaldean: As that by which they are whitened, namely cloths; the Septuagint: As the herb of those who wash. Hence it is clear that borith is not soap, as Arias and Vatablus wish, but an herb, as Theodoretus, R. Jona, R. Solomon, the Zurich Bible and others assert. Whence St. Jerome in Jerem. cap. II, 22, relates that the herb of fullers grows in the green and moist places of Palestine, and has the same power for removing filth and stains from cloths as niter and soap: whence it is also called soapwort both in Latin and in Italian, well known to gardeners, by which it is commonly used to remove stains from cloths and garments, as I myself have seen in Rome. See the remarks on Jerem. cap. II, 22. Note: Just as the Prophet a little before compared Christ to refining and purifying fire for gold, so here he compares Him to the herb of fullers cleansing cloths, so that He may cleanse the wedding garment of His own, and make it white and splendid. For the souls of the just through the grace of Christ shine white as robes, and gleam as gold. Moreover, for borith the Syriac and Arabic versions each render sulphur, because by its heat it purifies all things: or perhaps they took borith for the neighboring gophrith, that is sulphur. Whence the Syriac renders: Because as fire it is which refines, and as sulphur whitening; the Antiochene Arabic: For He indeed as fire going, and as sulphur which grows white; the Alexandrine Arabic: For He indeed will come as refining fire, and as sulphur will burn fiercely. The burning of sulphur is well known: whence St. Jerome refers these things to the fire of Purgatory, or of hell, where there is fire burning with pitch and sulphur, as I said a little before. Vers. 3.
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3. And he shall sit refining and cleansing silver. — "He shall sit," seriously and accurately, not in passing and lightly as if by the way, about to refine silver, that is his faithful ones, especially priests, as he subjoins, so that they may become bright like silver, and shine forth as silvery priests. Secondly, "he shall sit," as a discerner and judge, so that he may distinguish, separate and set apart vices, especially those which hide themselves under the appearance of virtues, namely hypocrisies and deceits, from true virtues, and the virtuous themselves from hypocrites. For men judge according to their affections, and what is virtue they impute to vice, and what is vice to virtue. With good reason on this matter Sidonius Apollinaris complains in book VII epistle 9: "Who," he says, "would not blush at virtues, when he sees the sincerity of virtues soiled by the accusation of vices? If we choose the humble, he is called abject. If we put forward the upright, he is deemed proud. If one is less educated, on account of ignorance he is believed to be ridiculous. If somewhat learned, on account of knowledge he is cried out as puffed up. If severe, as cruel he is feared. If indulgent, by facility he is blamed. If simple, he is despised as brutish. If keen, he is vituperated as cunning. If diligent, he is determined to be superstitious. If remiss, he is judged negligent. If resourceful, covetous. If quiet, he is pronounced idle. If we put forward the abstemious, he is received as avaricious. If him who feeds by eating, he is attacked for gluttony. If him who fasts by feeding, he is accused of vanity. They condemn freedom as wickedness, they disdain modesty as rusticity. The rigid they do not hold dear on account of austerity; the bland are cheapened among them by familiarity." Christ the judge observes all these things, discerning by keen judgment what is virtue, what is vice: to the one assigning its honor, to the other its disgrace. Let the priest remember, especially the confessor, that he sits as it were as the vicar of Christ at the tribunal, so that he may not perform this judgment lightly, and say to each one confessing: I absolve you; but let him examine faults maturely, and endeavor not to cover them, not to obscure them, not to erase them superficially, but to eradicate them radically; just as the goldsmith by fire eradicates from gold every dross, and the fuller by the herb borith removes from cloth every, even the innermost, blemish and stain. For what does it profit the penitent to be absolved, if the root, namely the same proneness and the proximate occasion to sin, remains, which will immediately impel him again to sin and to relapse? Surely it will happen as is commonly said: The dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Do you wish to know whether someone is a good confessor? See what sort his penitents are: if these change their life, or make very great progress in holiness, if they undertake heroic works, know that he is a distinguished confessor; but if penitents remain the same, that is in the same state, of vice or virtue, know that he is a weak confessor, and one of the common sort. "Often," says St. Gregory in book VIII of the Morals chapter XI, "even the reprobate confess their sins, but disdain to weep for them: but the elect pursue their faults which they open with the voice of confession with the tears of strict sorrow." And soon after: "The Psalmist not only laid bare the wound of his heart, but also applied the remedy to what was laid bare with sorrows, saying: I will declare my iniquity, and I will think for my sin. For by declaring he uncovered the hidden wound, but by thinking what else does he apply to the wound but a remedy?" The same, homily 34 in the Gospel: "To do penance," he says, "is both to bewail evils perpetrated, and not to perpetrate evils to be bewailed: for he who thus laments some deeds, yet commits others, either dissimulates or is ignorant that he is doing penance or not doing it." St. Ambrose, hearing penitents, was so moved toward them by the pious affection of compassion and aid, that he burst forth into tears, and weeping made them themselves weep, and compelled them to change their life. Thus his Life has it. His follower was St. Charles Borromaeus. See St. Ambrose sermon 35 On the manner of truly doing penance. His is that terrible sentence, book II On Penance, chapter X: "I have more easily found those who preserved innocence than those who did penance fittingly. One must renounce the world, etc. One must live so that we die to this vital use: man must deny himself, and be wholly changed: just as the fables relate of a certain young man, on account of loves of a harlot having gone abroad, and the love having been forgotten having returned, afterward having met the old beloved, who when not accosted, wondered thinking her not recognized, meeting again said: I am; he answered: But I am not." Mystically, man sits on the Sabbath, that is on the Lord's Day and feast day, when he rests from other works and is free for God. For just as man becomes wise by sitting and resting, as Aristotle says in book VII of the Physics, so likewise by resting he receives the illuminations of God, by which he is purified and becomes divine, according to that passage in Lamentations, chapter III, 28: "He shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath lifted himself up over himself." And Psalm XLV, 11: "Be still and see that I am God." For just as quiet water, with impurities settling, becomes clear and transparent like a mirror, so too a quiet soul, with passions subsiding, perceives truth and becomes capable of spiritual and divine knowledge, especially because it is free from tumult and separated from other objects, and is free for and attends to one truth, to one God alone. For that saying is true: The sense is less attentive to individual things when intent upon many. AND HE SHALL PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI. — Both because many Levites and priests converted to Christ became holy, indeed preachers, among whom was St. Barnabas, Acts, chapter IV, 36, of whom St. Luke says in Acts, chapter VI, 7: "And a great multitude of the priests obeyed the faith." For Malachi rebuked the Jewish Levites and priests, whom he here predicts will be reformed by Christ, thus Theodoret; and because Christ, abolishing the old Levites and Aaronic priests, instituted new ones of holy and angelic life. For such were the Apostles and their disciples and successors. These therefore are the sons of Levi, that is, priests not of the old but of the new Testament; descendants not of Aaron but of Christ; thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupertus, Hugo, Lyra and others. In a similar way the Church of Christ is called Sion and Jerusalem, because born in Jerusalem, it succeeded the Synagogue of Sion and of the Jews. He mentions the purification of priests by Christ to be made, rather than of laypeople, both because the highest purity and holiness is required in the priests of Christ, in that they are vicars of Christ, who is the Holy of Holies, and in that they handle, confect and administer the most holy sacraments, especially the Eucharist; and because priests purify the people: hence the purer and holier the priest, the purer and holier the people becomes. For the priest breathes into and instills his holiness into them both by word and by life. Just as conversely an impure priest corrupts the whole Church, as has been shown from St. Chrysostom and others at verse 1 and chapter I, 6. Let priests therefore see how they may preserve this honor of theirs, lest it be said of them what St. Boniface, the first bishop of Mainz, apostle of Frisia and martyr, said groaning over the presbyters of his age: "Once golden priests celebrated in wooden chalices, now wooden priests celebrate in golden chalices." Thus it is found in his Life. Tropologically, the sons of Levi, that is, spiritual and mystical priests, are the faithful, who offer to God victims of good works, of prayer, of contrition, of almsgiving, and especially a pure heart and holy and burning desires of love, according to that passage in I Peter, chapter II, 9: "But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, offering spiritual victims, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." AND HE SHALL REFINE. — To refine is to transfer a liquid, for example oil, wine, milk, melted gold, etc., gradually and drop by drop through some narrow vessel or linen cloth, so that what is pure may pass through while what is thick and impure is excluded. Whence Pliny in book XIII, chapter II: "Royal ointment," he says, "consists of refined honey." And Manilius: And to refine the wandering rivers with drawn nets. And Apuleius in the Florid: "Nor," he says, "did they know how to refine a field, or to refine gold." Here for "shall refine," the Chaldean translator renders "shall purify"; Pagninus, "shall melt"; others, "shall defecate"; the Septuagint, "shall pour out," as melted and defecated gold is wont to be poured out drop by drop from a smelting furnace. Moreover Christ refines and purifies priests through the Holy Spirit, just as he refined the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit gave them the spirit of contrition and tears, likewise charity and zeal. Tropologically, through tribulations and persecutions, says Vatablus, such as the priests suffered in the primitive Church, when almost all were seized unto death and were leaders of the people unto martyrdom. That St. Cornelius the Pope did this at Rome during the persecution of Decius, St. Cyprian both narrates and celebrates, in book I, epistle 1 to Cornelius: "It cannot be expressed," he says, "how great was the exultation there, etc., that he showed himself there as a leader to the brethren in confession; but also the confession of the leader grew from the confession of the brethren, so that, while you proceed to glory, you made many companions of glory, and persuaded the people to become confessors, while you were the first prepared to confess for all." And soon after: "The virtue of the Bishop proceeding there was publicly approved, the gathering of the following brotherhood was shown, while among you there is one mind and one voice, the entire Roman Church confessed. You taught greatly to fear God, to adhere firmly to Christ, the people to join with priests in danger, in persecution brethren not to be separated from brethren, concord joined together not to be overcome at all: whatever is once asked by all, may God of peace grant to the peaceful." And a little later: "What a glorious spectacle was that before the eyes of God, what joy in the sight of Christ for His Church, when to the battle which the enemy had attempted to bring, not individual soldiers, but entire camps at once came forth?" Morally, let Bishops here, and their examiners, see how careful they ought to be in admitting those who offer themselves for sacred Orders, so that they may see whether they are of good life and worthy of such a rank, and whether they have the learning by which they can rightly fulfill so great a duty, and be able to instruct the people in faith and divine matters. For if goldsmiths cultivate gold and silver with such care and labor, namely through fire, so that they may separate dross from it, and collect nothing but pure and unmixed metal: how much more ought a Bishop to refine those to be ordained, so that he may ordain golden priests to the people, not tin, not iron, not wooden? For from priests depend the entire discipline, life and holiness of the Church. Let them read and practice on this matter the decrees of the Council of Trent, session XXIII, chapter VII and XIV, and session XXIV, chapter XVIII. Sophronius narrates in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CXLIX, and from him Baronius, volume VI, in the year of the Lord 491, that when the abbot Amos, patriarch of Jerusalem, was ordained, he said: "Pray for me, Fathers; for a great and unbearable burden has been laid upon me, it is the same as that of Peter and Paul to rule rational souls, but I am an unhappy and sinful man; for I fear the burden of ordination more than all other things." He then brings forward the example of St. Leo: "For I found it written, that the blessed Leo, Pope, equal to the angels, persevered for forty days at the sepulcher of the Apostle Peter, persisting in vigils and prayers, and asking the Apostle to intercede for him with God, that his sins might be forgiven him. When the forty days were completed, the Apostle Peter appeared to him, saying to him: I have prayed for you, and all your sins are forgiven, except the imposition of hands." He speaks of the remission not of guilt; for this is all remitted at once, but of punishment, says Baronius. Therefore there remained to St. Leo the obligation of the penalties of sins, which those whom he had unworthily promoted to Orders would have committed, according to that of the Apostle in I Timothy, chapter V: "Lay hands hastily upon no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins." For this reason priests are ordained only after prayer and fasting of the whole Church; and God formerly often designated by heavenly sign whom he wished to be chosen bishops, as he designated St. Matthias, Acts, chapter I, 26. Thus St. Fabian was designated by God as pontiff through a dove, flying down from on high upon his head: for in the form of a dove the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ when he was baptized. Thus Eusebius relates it in book VI of his History, chapter XXII. A similar thing happened to St. Chrysostom; for when he was ordained patriarch of Constantinople, a white dove flying down stood upon his head, as Leo Augustus narrates in his Life, and from him Baronius, volume VI, in the year of the Lord 456. Thus also St. Gregory, fleeing the pontificate, was recognized by the sign of a bright dove continually hanging over him from heaven, and was carried to the temple of St. Peter, and created pontiff. Thus also Remigius, bishop of Rheims, when he was only twenty-two years old, was created from heaven. For a ray of new light descended upon his head, as if the sun itself moved from heaven and fell upon him; because namely he himself was being prepared as the light of souls to be illuminated. For with that ray shining upon him, he felt the liquid of sacred ointment poured upon his head, with which his entire head was anointed, says Hincmar in his Life. When Mena, Patriarch of Constantinople, had died, the Emperor Justinian entered into the assembly of Bishops and Clergy, and recounted to them a heavenly vision: When, he said, I had fallen asleep in the church of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, in which the senate was held, in sleep I saw the prince of the Apostles showing me a great man, Eutychius, and saying to me: Make this man Bishop. When the emperor had sworn to this, Eutychius was proclaimed Patriarch by the Bishops and Clergy. Thus Eustathius in the Life of St. Eutychius. Thus St. Ambrose was declared Archbishop of Milan by the voice of a child and the people crying out: "Ambrose for Bishop." Thus Socrates, book IV, chapter XXX. Thus St. Athanasius, summoned by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, as he was dying, to succeed him, when he fled, Alexander cried out: "Athanasius, do you think you can flee? Yet you shall not escape;" wherefore he was seized by the Clergy and people for the episcopate: thus Sozomen, book II of the History, chapter XVI. St. Amphilochius was consecrated Bishop of Iconium by angels, as Nicephorus relates, book XI, chapter XX. Those therefore who are to be created priests or bishops should apply themselves to prayer and seek the heavenly light and the will of God, lest they err in a matter of such great moment for the common good of the Church, but let them designate those who are to be for the glory of God, the edification of the Church, and their own salvation. Sacrifices. — In Hebrew mincha, that is, a grain sacrifice, namely the Eucharist under the species of bread and wine, of which he spoke in chapter 1, 11. For this, being most pure, he sets in opposition to the impure sacrifices and the Aaronic priests. Thus Theodoret, Rupert, Lyra and others. In justice, — that is, justly, purely, holily, according to that word of Zacharias in Luke, chapter 1, 14: "Let us serve him in holiness and justice before him, all the days of our life." For priests, as it were embodied angels, ought to walk and proceed before God in all justice and holiness.
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4. And it shall please. — The Chaldean: It shall be accepted willingly; Pagninus and Vatablus, it shall be sweet (for this is what arebu means), that is, sweet, pleasing, and savory shall be the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem to the Lord, that is, of the Christian Church, which is the new Sion of God, sprung forth from the old Sion as it passed away, so that in it the old may be seen to rise again and be reborn as it were like the phoenix. Hence precisely through Jerusalem, which was the metropolis and head of Judah, could be understood the Roman Church and the Apostolic See, which is the head and metropolis of the whole Church, which is Judah, that is, confessing God. As in the days of old, — that is, as in ancient days, as follows, in which the holy men of old, Abel, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, etc., pleased God, and to him they holily offered their sacrifices. Whence the priest in the Canon of the Mass says and prays: "Upon these (namely the consecrated bread and chalice) deign to look with a propitious and serene countenance, and to accept them, as thou didst deign to accept the gifts of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and that which thy high priest Melchizedek offered to thee, a holy sacrifice, an immaculate victim." Note: The sicut assimilates Christian sacrifices to the Aaronic, not so much as to the sacrifice itself, as to those who sacrifice. For the sacrifice itself in the new law is far more excellent than the Aaronic, since its victim is the very body of Christ, which therefore has the power of obtaining from the work wrought (ex opere operato): but the Aaronic victim was an ox or a goat, which were only a type and shadow of Christ, and therefore availed only from the work and devotion of the one working, not however from the work wrought. He says therefore that Christ himself will cleanse and sanctify the priests in the new law, so that with that purity, devotion and religiousness they may offer sacrifices to God, with which Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, and other holy men of old and of distinction offered them. Secondly, however, the sicut can signify a likeness in the sacrifice itself. For, as Lyra says, the sicut signifies the analogy which is between the type and antitype, between the image and the exemplar, between the shadow and the truth, and therefore, as Clarius says, it signifies the excellence of the Eucharistic sacrifice before the Aaronic, as if to say: The Eucharistic sacrifice shall please God wonderfully, as is evident from its types, image and shadows, namely from the sacrifice of Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, etc. For if these, which were only types and shadows, so pleased God, that God on account of them blessed their whole family, indeed the whole world; much more shall the sacrifice of Christ please, which was their exemplar, truth and antitype, and which gave to those ancient sacrifices all their force and dignity, by which they pleased God.
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5. And I will come to you in judgment. — He returns to the complaint of the Jews saying, in cap. II, last verse: "Where is the God of judgment?" To these he responds: Behold, I shall come shortly, "I will come," and I will draw near, as the Zurich Bible translates it, to you for judgment, so that namely I may descend into flesh, and face to face I may inspect the crimes of the impious, and thus as a judge I may condemn and punish them. In a similar manner, God says, Genesis cap. XVIII, 20: "The cry of the Sodomites and Gomorrhites is multiplied, etc. I will descend and see whether they have fulfilled in deed the cry which comes to me, or whether it is not so, that I may know." Wherefore in fact three Angels, representing God triune and one, went to Sodom, where by the inhabitants sought for lust, from heaven it rained upon them fire and brimstone, by which all were consumed. The Prophet continues to speak of the first advent of Christ in flesh, by which Christ came to inspect crimes, and to be a witness of them, which then partly in this life and death he punishes, partly in the final judgment he will punish. Whence the Chaldean translates: And I will reveal myself upon you, to make judgment, and my word shall be against you as a witness, etc. Thus Rupertus, Arias, Ribera and a Castro. Others in various places think the Prophet here passes from the first advent of Christ in flesh to the second, by which he will come to judgment, when he himself, as St. Jerome says, will be at once judge and witness, even of the most hidden crimes, adulteries, etc., which are here enumerated. Thus also Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Lyran and Vatable. For Christ the judge will at the same time be a "swift witness"; Zurich Bible, hasty; Vatable, prompt: because nothing is hidden from him, but as God he sees all things, as man he knows all things through infused knowledge, equally as through the beatific vision. Wherefore to the impious he will say: I saw, O Judah, your hidden avarice, which impelled you to betray me to the Jews. I saw, O Robert, your hidden pollution, fornication, adultery. I saw, O Nicholas, your hidden evil desires, your desires of vengeance, your machinations of slaughter. I saw, O Simon, your hidden simony, ambitions, envies, etc. Is it not so? If you deny it, your conscience will be a witness to Christ, and will cry out that you lie. Wherefore the whole world will see that Christ's judgment and sentence is most just, by which he will say: Go, adulterers, go, murderers, go, simonists, go, ambitious ones, go, envious ones, go, accursed ones, into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Either sense fits this place. For Christ began to be judge and witness in the first advent, but he will perfect both in the second, namely on the day of judgment. Witness therefore by catachresis here is the same as judge. Thus Christ is called a faithful witness, that is judge, king and prince, Apoc. 1, 5. See the things said there. Who defraud the wages of the hireling, — that is, as the Chaldean and Septuagint: Who violently take away the wages of the hireling; Pagninus: Who by force retain; Vatable: Who oppress; Zurich Bible: Who defraud the hireling of his wages. For the Hebrew asac means to defraud another of a thing or his right by calumny, force or deceit. Whence it is added: "Widows and orphans," supply and repeat, "they defraud," and oppress. For to humiliate, which some Bibles have, the Roman and Hebrew texts expunge. Whence the Septuagint translates: Who oppress by power widows, and strike orphans. They oppress the stranger. — Septuagint and Chaldean: Who pervert the judgment of the sojourner; Pagninus, renders the Hebrew matte word for word, perverting the stranger; Zurich Bible: they turn away the stranger.
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6. For I am the Lord, and I am not changed. — The Hebrew lo scaniti, that is, as the Septuagint has it, I am not changed; Pagninus: I have not changed myself, that is, I am immutable and do not change. For the Hebrews, because they lack a present tense verb, express it by the past tense. Now the sense is, first, as if to say: My threat is firm, I fulfill what I have foretold, says Vatablus. I threaten adulterers, perjurers, oppressors of the poor with vengeance, and I shall bring it upon them. Second, as if to say: I am not changeable, fickle and inconstant, so that now I will one thing, soon another, but I always hate and punish crimes and criminals. Third, St. Jerome says: "What follows, 'I am the Lord, and I am not changed,' he places here because above he had said: 'He is as a refiner's fire, and as the herb of fullers,' lest we think he changes the nature of his divinity, when for us he is called either angel, or fire, or borith." Fourth, others refer it to what follows: "And you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed," as if to say: I have not consumed you, although you are perverse, because my mercy, which I promised to your fathers, is constant and immutable: "For I am the Lord, and I am not changed," according to that in Lamentations, chapter III, 22: "The mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed, because his commiserations have not failed." Or, as if to say: You, O Jews, slander me as being changeable, in that I have consumed you contrary to the promises made to your fathers; but you are mistaken: for neither am I changed, nor have I consumed you. Fifth, as if to say: You, O Jews, are changed, and go from crime to crime; but I am constant and immutable in my judgment and decision. Sixth, on the other hand Rupertus, as if to say: I am immutable in good, you are obstinate and immutable in evil: "For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances," as follows. Seventh, the Chaldean translator renders it: For I am the Lord, I have not changed my covenant which is from eternity: and you, house of Israel, think that whoever dies in this age, his judgment ceases, as if to say: You think the impious are not to be punished, because many of them remain unpunished in this age. But you are mistaken, for I shall punish them in the future: for in judgment and justice, decreed by me from eternity, I am constant and do not change. Eighth and genuinely, for the voice gives the reason for the preceding, as if to say: You, O Jews, slander me, throwing in that from the preceding chapter, last verse: "Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him." For you think I have changed my nature, as if I who once loved the good and hated the bad; now with changed mind I hate the good and afflict them, and love and enrich the bad; because I have prospered the unfaithful Chaldeans, but have delivered you, my faithful ones, to be laid waste by them. Hence you say: "Where is the God of judgment?" To this slander I have answered in the preceding verse, and have declared: "I will come to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the wicked," etc., as if to say: Although I defer for a short time the judgment and vengeance of the impious, yet certainly and soon I shall come to it, and shall accomplish it. For I constantly love and reward the good, constantly hate and punish the bad, but in their own time. The reason for this is my constancy and immutability, both in nature and in my words and decrees: "For I am the Lord, and I am not changed." Thus St. Cyril, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupertus, Hugo, Lyran and Vatablus. Note: The reason for God's immutability, or rather the first ground, says St. Thomas in the First Part, Question IX, is the fullness and perfection of nature, namely divinity. For since this possesses and holds all good things in itself firmly, necessarily and naturally, hence it cannot be changed so as to seek or desire some other good, since it has all things in itself essentially. Hence his name is Jehova, that is, he who is: "I am who am," Exodus, chapter III, 14. See the remarks there. That saying of Trismegistus in the Pimander is celebrated: "As the parts of the world are heaven, water, earth, and air: so the members, as it were, of God are life, immortality, necessity, providence, nature, soul, mind, and the participation of all these, which is itself the good: nor does anything happen anywhere, nor has anything been made where God is not present." More divinely Cassiodorus, in Psalm XLVII: Great is the Lord, etc.: "God," he says, "is an inexplicable power, an incomprehensible mercy, an ineffable wisdom, whose definition is to have no end in the praises of the saints." Now because God is immutable in nature, hence he is also immutable in will, so that what he once wills, he always wills: because the will follows nature, indeed in God the will is the same as nature. Second, because God is pure act, having nothing mixed with potentiality; but whatever is changed is in some way in potentiality to that which it becomes, as St. Thomas says in the place already cited. To this pertains that saying of the Apostle: "Who only hath immortality," I Timothy, chapter VI: "Because all change is a kind of imitation of death," as St. Bernard says, to be cited presently. Hence in Psalm CI it is said: "Thou shalt change them as a garment, and they shall be changed: but thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail." And in Numbers XXIII: "God is not as a man, that he should lie; nor as the son of man, that he should be changed." Most excellently St. Gregory of Nyssa in his Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, on those words, Thy kingdom come, says: "Does he now wish to become king of all, he who always is what he is, who is firm and immovable against all change, who cannot find anything better into which he might pass?" Third, God is immutable because he is most simple, to whom nothing can be added or accrue. Thus St. Augustine, book XI of the City of God, chapter X: "There is therefore, he says, only one simple good, and for this reason alone immutable, which is God." The same, book VI of the Trinity, chapter VI: "Nothing simple is mutable." And the Author of the book On the Essence of Divinity, cited by St. Augustine at the beginning: "For this reason, he says, God is called immutable, because in his nature anger, fury, repentance, forgetfulness, remembrance, and other things like these in no way occur. For his nature is simple, and immutable, and undisturbed; nor is he one thing, and what he has and what he is another thing," according to that in James, chapter I, 17: "With whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration." Wherefore Tertullian, or rather Novatian, in the book On the Trinity, chapter IV: "Change, he says, is a portion of death. For indeed increases show origin, and decreases prove death and destruction. And therefore: I, says Malachi, chapter III, am God, and I am not changed: always maintaining his state, since that which was not born cannot be changed. For whatever that can be in him, God must always be, so that he may always be God, preserving himself in his powers. And therefore he says: I am who I am." The fourth is given by St. Anselm, in the Proslogion, chapter XXII: "Thou alone, he says, O Lord, art what thou art. In that which has something mutable, it is not altogether what it is; and in that it has had being which now it is not; and will have being which yet it is not, that is not properly and absolutely: but thou art what thou art; because whatever thou art at any time or in any way, this thou art wholly and always: and thou art, who properly and simply art." Because what is changed loses some being and acquires other being; but God can lose or acquire nothing. Whence St. Augustine, book XI of the Confessions, chapter X: "In so far, he says, as anyone is not what he was, and is what he was not, in so far he dies and is born." The fifth is given by St. Augustine, book XI of the Confessions, chapters X and XI, and book XII, chapter XV. Because the will of God is eternal, and whatever he works in time throughout the whole course of ages, he willed and decreed the same thing all at once from eternity. But it is impossible that what he efficaciously willed from eternity should not come to pass in time, or that the contrary of it should come to pass. For thus the eternal decree of God would be frustrated. That saying of Plato is famous: "In God there is eternal providence and wisdom: in the heavens there is fate: on earth and in particular things there is the contingent and the new." The sixth is given by St. Augustine, book XI of the City of God, chapter XXI. Because all things past and future are present to God, and upon all things, as present, God's knowledge, will, and providence are directed. Just as therefore what I will concerning a present thing I cannot but will: so what God wills concerning future things he cannot but will, because future things are present to him. Tropologically, St. Gregory Nazianzen in oration 17 applies these things to a man strong and constant in virtue. For he, he says, "sensing something divine, can also use these very words of God: I am the same, and I am not changed. Wherefore neither shall he depart from his mind, nor shall he be changed with the times and things, otherwise putting on the manners of others, and assuming new colors in turn, not otherwise than as polyps take on the colors of the rocks to which they have attached themselves; but he shall remain always the same, and like unto himself, fixed in things not at all fixed, unmoved in uncertain and fluctuating things, not otherwise than as some rock which by the force of winds and waves is not only not shaken, but even breaks and wears away the waves dashing against it." Morally, learn here: The Name of God is: I am who am; the same always, constant and immutable: I am the Lord, and I change not; I am inflexible in my sentence, immutable in my decrees; my threats are certain, my promises are certain. Let the pious therefore believe and hope for eternal glory; let the impious fear and flee eternal fire. On the other hand, the title and name of man, of an angel, and of any created thing is: I am a creature, and I change, I change my counsels, I change my mind, I change my decrees, I change my desires and loves, finally I am turned about in continual change and motion. For created nature, since it is dependent, imperfect, diminished, defective, movable; hence it is perpetually changed. Wherefore those who fix their hope and love in men and other creatures are turned about in perpetual hunger, thirst, desire, fear, alteration and alternation, according to that in Lamentations I, 8: "Jerusalem hath sinned a sin, therefore is she become unstable." For he who adheres to what is movable, when it is moved must necessarily be moved with it. Do you wish to be constant and immobile on the other hand? Adhere to the immutable nature and good, which is God. For God in his immutability is immutable, just as on the other hand men and creatures in their mutability are immutable, because they are perpetually changed: for now they will, soon they will not; now they love, soon they hate; now they please, soon they displease; now they favor, soon they oppose; now they will, but cannot; soon they can, but will not; now they are highest, soon lowest; now living, soon dead. Truly St. Bernard, sermon 81 in the Canticles, citing these words of Malachi: I am the Lord, and I change not: "Every," he says, "change is a certain imitation of death. For everything that is changed, while it passes from one to another being, must in a certain way die what it is, where what is not begins to be. But if there are as many deaths as changes, where is immortality?" Excellently St. Augustine, book I of the Confessions, chapter VI: "With him," he says, "the causes of all unstable things stand firm, and the origins of all mutable things remain immutable, and the eternal reasons live in all irrational and temporal things;" and, as Boethius says: Stable and remaining gives all things to be moved. And Prosper, Sentence 145: "His will is eternal and immutable, nor is it varied by alternating counsel, in which at once is whatever in created things either preceded or follows in their creation or ordering." To the same point pertain what St. Augustine writes, book I of the Confessions, chapter IV: "Immutable, changing all things, never new, never old, renewing all things, and bringing the proud into oldness, and they know it not; always acting, always at rest, gathering and not needing, bearing and filling and protecting, creating and nourishing and perfecting. You seek, when nothing is lacking to you; you love and are not troubled, you are zealous and secure; you repent and do not grieve; you are angry and tranquil; you change your works, nor do you change your counsel; you receive what you find, and never lose it; never poor, and you rejoice in gains; never avaricious, and you exact usuries. It is superfluous to you that you should owe, and who has anything that is not yours? You repay debts owing nothing, giving debts losing nothing," etc. This is the primeval and uncreated immutability in God, which is the fountain, origin and cause of all stability and immutability both in angels, heavens, world, and in men. Ascend therefore to it, O soul, yearn for it, fix yourself to it, if you desire to be solid and firm. Transcend the waves of this sea, fly over the tumults of the world: let no alluring riches, dignities and pomps move you, which pass away in a moment: let not poverty, sickness, troubles, persecutions terrify you, which often suddenly, and always in death, end. Dwell in heaven, abide in God: there fixed, undisturbed you will rest. There above the spheres of all mutable things, above the paths of year and sun elevated, from on high you will look down upon this point of earth: you will see and laugh at the vain studies of men, vain labors, vain loves and honors of the worldly, as if children's rattles. You will marvel, nay rather pity the wretched lot of men, and the more wretched mind, and the trifling fascination of the trifles of this world, perverting simple sense, and with the Poet you will exclaim: O cares of men, O how much emptiness is in things! Excellently St. Gregory in book XXVI of the Morals, chapter XXVIII: "The soul," he says, "is suspended toward Him by whom it was formed. And because it was made to desire God alone, but whatever it desires below is less, rightly that which is not God does not suffice for it. Hence it is that it is scattered here and there, and is driven away from each thing by disgust impelling it, etc. But holy men, because they guard themselves with careful watchfulness lest they be dissolved from their intention in a mutable way, and because they desire the same being in the thought by which they love God, they bind themselves diligently. In the contemplation of the Creator they will receive this, that they always enjoy one stability of mind: no mutability then scatters them, because namely their thought persists always dissimilar to itself. This therefore they now attempt with labor, imitating what they receive rejoicing in the reward afterward. To this immutability the Prophet had bound himself by the virtue of love, when he said: One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. To this unity Paul had adhered in intention, saying in Philippians III, 13: But one thing, forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of Christ." And you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. — These things cohere aptly with what preceded, as if to say: I am God who am not changed: for as I do not change my threats, sentence and vengeance against adulterers, perjurers, and other evildoers; so in turn I do not change the mercy which I promised to your fathers. For I have not consumed you, when I could justly do so: "For from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances." Secondly, as if to say: Although I constantly hate the wicked, yet I have not punished your sins fully and entirely, as they deserved: for I have not consumed you, but have borne with you from the love by which I constantly pursue your fathers and you their sons, waiting for you to repent. Whence I exhort you to penance, and say: "Return to Me, and I will return to you." Thirdly, the Septuagint translates: You, O sons of Jacob, have not turned aside from the sins of your fathers; the Zurich Bible: You, O sons of Jacob, do not at all cease, others: You do not make an end, you do not cease (for the Hebrew cala means to finish, complete, cease, namely to offend Me and provoke Me), as if to say: I defer the vengeance of the impious, waiting for you to repent: but you on the contrary heap sins upon sins. You do as stubborn children, who when called gently by their parents turn their back, and become harder like buffalo, which the more they are drawn by buffalo-herders, the more they resist and draw back. Or, as if to say: I am not changed from good; but you are not changed from evil: I am immutable in holiness; you are immutable in perversity. Thus Rupertus.
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7. A legitimis meis (from My laws; Zurich Bible: From My statutes; Pagninus: From My institutions) return to Me (through penance), and I will return to you — through grace, friendship, beneficence. For the penance of the sinner is prior, than his justification and reconciliation with God; yet prior is the grace exciting God, by which He knocks on the mind of the sinner, that he return and repent, than his penance. For the sinner lies asleep in sleep, nay in death of sins, from which he cannot be aroused except through the voice and grace of God touching and arousing his heart, as here He goes before the Jews and arouses them, saying: "Return to Me." Thus the Council of Trent explains this place and similar ones, sess. IV, cap. V, where it teaches: "The beginning of justification in adults is to be taken from God's preventing grace through Christ Jesus, etc., so that those who by sins had turned away from God, through His exciting and helping grace are disposed to turn themselves to their own justification, freely assenting and cooperating with the same grace." And soon after: "Whence in sacred Scripture when it is said: Return to Me, and I will return to you, we are admonished of our liberty. When we respond: Convert us, O Lord, to You, and we shall be converted, we confess that we are prevented by the grace of God." Therefore the sinner, that he may rise from sin, since he cannot do this by his own powers but by God's, let him pray frequently: Convert me, O Lord, to You, and I shall be converted.
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8. If a man shall afflict God. — Thus also the Zurich Bible. In Hebrew it is kaba, which is of uncertain signification; whence it is variously translated by various interpreters. Kaba in Hebrew signifies many things. First, the Septuagint and others think kaba by metathesis is the same as akab, that is, he supplanted, trampled upon, oppressed. Whence the Septuagint translates: If a man shall supplant God, because you have supplanted me. It alludes to the name Jacob, as if to say: You, O sons of Jacob, imitate your father, but perversely: for Jacob seized the rights of primogeniture from his brother Esau, but by the command of his mother and the will of God; whence he was called Jacob, that is, supplanter: but you against my will seize my tithes and rights, whence with the name inverted I call you kabobæans, not Jacobæans. Secondly, Pagninus and Vatablus translate kaba as to seize, to defraud, to extort, to despoil. Whence Pagninus translates: Shall a man seize what belongs to God, because you have seized mine? Vatablus: Ought a man to despoil God, because you have despoiled me? A man despoils God when he withholds from his ministers the tithes and other things necessary for sustenance. Aquila, Symmachus and Theodoret translate: Shall a man defraud God? namely in his tithes and rights. Thirdly, R. Abraham translates kaba as to corrupt, to destroy. Fourthly, the Syriac and Alexandrian Arabic translate: Shall a man oppress God, as you oppress me? And the Antiochene Arabic: Shall a man oppress God, because you have cast out (rejected, despised) me? Fifthly, kaba in the language of the Chaldæans and Syrians, says St. Jerome, signifies to affix. All these versions aim at the same meaning: for the sense is, as if to say: Is it just, right and lawful that a man should grieve and afflict his God, just as if he were piercing him with a nail or spear? grieve, I say, by defrauding the tithes, by which his ministers were to be sustained; whereby it comes to pass that they, on account of poverty, flee away and abandon God and the worship of God: thus the religion and veneration of God is neglected, trampled upon, destroyed. Does not this afflict God and as it were affix him to the cross? Thus Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyra, Ribera and others. God speaks in human manner and anthropopathically. Mystically, St. Jerome (who thinks this is the literal sense) refers these things to the crucifixion of Christ: "Whence also we, many years ago, translated: He shall affix, rather to the mystery of the Lord's passion, in which men crucified God, than to tithes and first-fruits written of." Moreover he connects these things that follow with the cross in this manner, as if to say: "That you might affix me to the cross, that you might lay wicked hands upon your God, you did this by the meditation of many things beforehand, by withholding tithes and first-fruits, not, I say, from my priests and Levites, but from me, who commanded them to be given through Moses," as if to say: You afflicted me long ago by the sacrilege of tithes, now you have affixed me to the cross; and by the former sacrilege you paved the way and made a step to the latter deicide. Tropologically, every sinner while he sins, by his sin as it were an arrow shot into heaven, pierces God as far as in him lies, according to that saying of the Apostle, Hebrews VI, 6: "Again crucifying the Son of God and making a mockery of him." This consideration indeed ought to restrain a man, even one in a rage, from crime: Do you know whither you rush, O wretched one, while you rush to slaughter, to lust? You rush to the death of Christ, that you might again affix Christ to the cross. Therefore check your step, lest you commit so great a crime: restrain anger, lust, etc., because anger and lust are deicide, nay, deicide. How many blows, how many curses, how many pollutions do you commit, how many nails do you drive through the body of Christ, with so many daggers do you pierce and transfix his heart. In tithes. — See here how strictly God exacts tithes, and how he feels if they are denied, namely just as if someone were to pierce him with a nail or dagger. And in first-fruits. — Zurich Bible: In magnificent gifts. In Hebrew it is teruma, that is, elevation, that is, an oblation which was offered to God by being elevated, as I said at Exodus XXIII, 27, and especially first-fruits: for these hold the principal place among oblations. See here again how much God rejoices in the oblations of the faithful, and grieves if they cease or are diminished.
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9. And you are cursed with poverty. — Zurich Bible: You are cursed with a curse; Vatablus and Pagninus: You are cursed with the curse itself. By curse he understands the denial of rain, and thence the sterility of the earth, famine and poverty: for the cause of these is God's curse. Whence a little later, opposing to this curse the blessing, he calls rain: "If I shall not open, he says, the cataracts of heaven and pour out upon you a blessing." The sense is, as if to say: I have cursed you and afflicted you with poverty and famine, and, that is, because, in like manner you pierce me and afflict me with want and famine, by denying tithes and oblations; thus you drive away priests and overturn my worship. At the same time Nehemiah complained of this to the magistrates, cap. XIII, 10, where he recounts how by his command he restored the tithes to the priests and the priests to their offices and the temple. The whole nation, — as if to say: Not one, not a few, but all and the whole nation deny tithes: thus you pierce me.
3:10
10. Bring in the whole tithe, etc., and prove me in this, etc., if I shall not open the cataracts. — Zurich: windows of heaven, that is, as St. Jerome explains it, if I shall not pour forth so abundant a rain that the cataracts of heaven appear to be opened. Note: Cataracts are called the waters flowing down from on high in such great quantity, force and roar, that they seem rather to rush than to flow (for the Greeks say κατερράττειν, to flow down), such as we see the Anio at Tivoli, and such as we read the cataracts of the Nile are in Egypt, says Pliny, book V, chapter IX. Hence the places themselves from which the waters issue forth, and especially the barriers and bolts by which they are held back and restrained, are called cataracts. The Hebrews and Jerome, following Oleaster, at Genesis VII, 11, believe that these cataracts are truly in heaven, and that they were broken open at the time of the flood of Noah, so that through that heaven torn asunder into holes and windows, the waters might rush through them, and sink and overwhelm the earth. But this is paradoxical, repugnant to Sacred Scripture and to physics. It is therefore a Hebrew figure and phrase: for the Hebrews say heaven is closed when it holds back vapors and clouds, lest they be resolved into rain and fall down; but it is opened and broken when waters from the clouds burst forth with great force, roar and impetuosity, just as if they were breaking through cataracts, that is, barriers placed in the way, namely iron gates, or windows. So also the Latins in great rains are accustomed to say that the cataracts of heaven are opened. Whence that passage in Psalm XII, 8: Deep calleth on deep, at the noise of thy cataracts. Similar passages are Isaiah XXIV, 10, IV Kings VII, 2. See the remarks on Genesis VII, 11. And I will pour out (Pagninus: I will empty out) upon you a blessing. — Zurich: I will pour out upon you every kind of blessing. By blessing he calls the abundant rain, moistening and making fertile the fields, and thus producing an abundant crop and harvest. Until there be not room enough — in Hebrew belidai, that is: Until there be not sufficiency, supply of vessels and barns, as if to say: I will give you such abundance of all fruits that vessels and barns will not be sufficient for you to receive and store them: thus Vatable. Whence Pagninus translates: So that vessels will not be sufficient for you, as happened to that woman blessed by Elisha, to whom a cruse poured out so much oil that she filled all the vessels borrowed, so that she said to her son: "Bring me yet another vessel; and he said: I have no more; and the oil stayed," IV Kings IV, 3. Be therefore liberal toward God and God's ministers, and you will feel in turn God to be much more liberal toward you: for the Creator does not allow himself to be surpassed in liberality by his creatures. Hence secondly, more correctly and simply the Hebrew belidai, that is not sufficiency, since it is one word, is the same as abundance: for abundance is opposed to sufficiency; as if to say: I will give you rains and fruits, not unto sufficiency, but unto abundance. Whence Arias translates: Beyond sufficient: for the Hebrew beli sometimes signifies, without, beyond. Just as therefore we say: I saw ants without number, that is innumerable, so God promises here rain belidai, that is without sufficiency, or beyond sufficiency; that is more than sufficient, namely abundant and copious. Or certainly beli, here in composition is merely enclitic, and is added only for the sake of ornament to the word dai, that is sufficiency, plenty, abundance. For from dai God is called Saddai, that is cornucopia, most rich, most abundant, most munificent. Whence R. Saadias: "God," he says, "is called Saddai, because he himself abounds, so that his abundance supplies all the defects of all creatures." The Septuagint seems to have followed this; for they translate: Until it suffice; and the Chaldean: So that you say: It is enough. For the Hebrew dai, that is sufficiency, calls plenty and abundance, as our translator renders it. Note: The Jews returning from Babylon were poor; hence they denied tithes. For the poor from their narrow circumstances contract a narrow heart: whence they become stingy, sordid, avaricious, thievish, and especially they either deny or diminish and reduce the rights owed to the Church. Wherefore Solomon wisely prays against both poverty and riches, Proverbs XXX, 8: "Give me not," he says, "beggary and riches; give me only the necessaries of life: lest perhaps being full I should be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by want I should steal, and forswear the name of my God." For necessity is a hard weapon. Wherefore God, meeting this evil and misery of theirs, breaks and enlarges their narrow heart, teaching that if they be liberal toward God and the priests, they will receive from God a blessing and abundance of things. Know, says St. Jerome, that you have lost abundance, because you have defrauded me of my portion. I therefore warn you to restore to me what is mine, and I will restore to you what is yours. The same Haggai promised to the same people at the same time in chapter II, 20, and Zechariah in chapter II, 4. St. Augustine wrote concerning the restoration of tithes in sermon 219 De Tempore, vol. X, where among other things, citing these words of Malachi, he draws from them the following axioms. First: "Tithes are tributes for needy souls. Restore therefore tributes to the poor, offer libations to priests." Second: "The Lord God has no need, he does not demand a reward, but honor." Third: "He deigns to ask for the firstfruits of things and tithes, and do you deny them greedily?" Fourth: "What would you do, if, taking nine parts for himself, he had left you the tenth?" Fifth: "Which certainly has already happened, since your harvest, deprived of the blessing of rains, has failed in barrenness; and your vintage either hail has struck, or frost has withered. Why do you reckon greedily? Nine parts have been taken from you, because you were unwilling to give the tenth. For this is indeed the most just custom of the Lord, that if you do not give him the tenth, you shall be reduced to the tenth." Sixth: "You will give to the impious soldier what you are unwilling to give to the priest." Seventh: "Tithes are required by obligation, and whoever is unwilling to give them has seized what belongs to another." Eighth: "As many poor in places where he himself dwells, that one not giving tithes, have died of hunger, so many murders will that one appear guilty of before the tribunal of the eternal judge: because what the Lord delegated to the poor, he reserved for his own uses." Ninth: "Behold the year is now finished, restore to the Lord the reward of his rains." Tenth: "He does not exact something of yours that you might repay," but his own, indeed the tenth part of what is his he demands back. See concerning tithes the Council of Trent, session XXV, chapter XII, and what I have said in Deuteronomy chapter XIV, at the end, and Numbers XVIII, at the end.
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11. I will rebuke (that is, I will prohibit, as if rebuking—this is catachresis) the devourer, namely of your crops, for instance the locust, as if to say: I will command the locusts, and I will restrain them, lest they consume your fruits, lest they lay waste your fields. Whence, explaining this, he adds: "And it shall not corrupt the fruit of your land."
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12. For you shall be a desirable land. First, the Septuagint understand as if to say, whence they translate: You shall be as a willing land, that is, willed and desirable, as if to say: You shall be green, flourishing, prosperous, abounding in all fruits and riches. Thus Cyril, or, as Vatablus, as if to say: You shall be men dwelling in a most fertile and pleasant land. Second, it can be an epexegesis; you, that is, your land shall be desirable; the Zurich Bible, desired, as if to say: All nations will desire to dwell in your land, as being blessed by God, and therefore abounding in fruits. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugh, Lyra. Third, in Hebrew word for word it is: You shall be a land of chephets, that is, of will, of pleasure, of desire, in which namely God will take pleasure, and which he will bless, and will heap with all goods: for because you obey God, and worship him by giving him tithes and firstfruits, hence in turn God will take pleasure in you, and because of you in your land, so that through it and its fertility he may enrich you and make you blessed. Whence the Chaldean translates: You shall dwell in the land of the house of my majesty, and my will shall be done in it, says the Lord, as if to say: Because you do my will, hence in turn my will and pleasure, and from that my beneficence shall pour itself out upon you and upon your land, and in it shall dwell and rest. Thus Judea by Daniel, chapter XI, 16, is called "a glorious land," in Hebrew sebiia, that is, glory, beauty, will, good pleasure, desire, a thing beloved and pleasing like a gazelle. See what is said there. Allegorically, the Church and the holy soul is a land of chephets, in which namely God takes pleasure, according to that in Isaiah LXII, 2: "The nations shall see your justice, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord has named. And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of your God. You shall no more be called Forsaken, etc., but you shall be called My will is in her, and your land shall be inhabited: because the Lord has been pleased with you." The same in the Canticle II, 9, is called tsebiia, that is, a beloved and graceful gazelle, because her spouse is Christ most gracious, like a gazelle: "My beloved, he says, is like a gazelle, and a young hart of the deer." And verse 17: "Return, be like, my beloved, to a gazelle, and a young hart of the deer upon the mountains of Bethel." And chapter IV, 5: "Your two breasts are like two young gazelles of a gazelle, twins, that feed among the lilies, until the day breathes and the shadows decline." And Jeremiah III, 19: "How shall I put you among the children, and give you a desirable land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations?" In Hebrew it is a heritage of tsebi tsiboth, that is, of the glory of gazelles, or of the pleasantness of pleasantnesses, that is, supremely beloved, most dear and most pleasant.
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13. They prevailed against me, — that is, against me. The Prophet returns to the blasphemy of the Jews, cap. II, vers. ult., because it was frequent in their mouth. For prevailed, in Hebrew it is chazecu, that is, they were strengthened. First, because you persist contentiously, forcefully and clamorously, indeed you grow in your blasphemy, and continually cry out to me: "Vain is he who serves the Lord:" thus Lyra and a Castro. Second, because these your continual and quarrelsome blasphemies befall me as very grave and troublesome, and oppress and weigh me down as if with a millstone: thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo and Arias. Third, the Zurich Bible translates: Your words prevail against me, namely because you by your clamors and blasphemies turn away more from me than my Prophets by their preaching turn to me: just as heretics pervert more than Catholics convert. For all naturally incline, indeed rush toward the liberty of the flesh which heretics preach, and abhor the continence and severity of life which Catholics preach. And you said: What have we spoken against you? — In Hebrew nidbarnu, as it were in niphal, signifies continual and unbroken speech. Whence the Chaldee paraphrast translates: In what have we multiplied words against you? Hear their murmuring against God's providence, justice and holiness. Vain is he who serves God. — Zurich Bible: It is in vain that God is served; Chaldee: He profits me who worships before the Lord, namely: The common people approve friendships by utility. The worldly man therefore vain, that is, unrewarded, uncompensated, because he receives no profit or reward of his service. This is the judgment of the world, by which worldly men deem pious, just, sincere, austere men vain, especially when they see them impoverished, despised, depressed, afflicted: because they are ignorant of the true goods of virtue and eternal glory; but they measure all things by present appearance, sense and taste, as children, swine and brutes do. And therefore they themselves are vain, because they are nourished by nothing but fleeting and vain things. Thus the wife of Job insulted him when afflicted, saying: "Yet you hold fast your innocence? Bless God, and die." To whom Job answered wisely, and equally generously: "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?" Job II, 10. Thus Tobias, blinded on account of the office of burial, was mocked by his kinsmen, saying cap. II, 15: "Where is your hope, for which you gave alms and made burials?" But Tobias rebuked them, saying: Do not speak so, for we are the children of saints, and we look for that life which God will give to those who never change their faith from him. Indeed if the just did not have hope of another and better life, they would afflict themselves in vain, and would sustain the afflictions of others to no purpose. For, as the Apostle says, I Corinth. XV, 19: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." But now because we hope for another life, blessed and eternal, for the small tribulations of this life, hence we are happier than all men. Thus St. Casimir, duke of Lithuania, and son of Casimir king of Poland, when he fell into sickness, and the physicians asserted he could not be freed from it unless he took a wife, answered: "I choose to die a virgin: for I know no other life except heavenly immortality." Wherefore lest he break his vow of virginity, he preferred to succumb, and to become to God a victim of chastity, so that eternally with God and the Lamb, an angel among angels, he might live. Thus his Life has it. Because we walked sorrowful. — In Hebrew kedorannit, that is, as the Zurich Bible, clothed in mourning, darkened, as it were sad, afflicted and penitent; Pagninus, humble; the Septuagint, supplicant; Chaldee, in depression of spirit. Whence by antithesis it is added:
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15. Therefore now we call the arrogant blessed, — who dare all things, and therefore exalt themselves, and lord it over the modest, and trample them and afflict them, as we see daily. For they are built up, — that is, with offspring, and at the same time the impious are increased with houses, villas, riches, delights, honors. It is a Hebraism. They tempted God, — that is, provoked him to wrath. Whence the Septuagint translates: They resisted God. Second, more genuinely and forcefully, they tempted, in Hebrew bachanu, that is, they proved God, as if to say: The impious, not content with their crimes, added others, different in number and in the enormity of their gravity, to this end, that they might experience whether there was a divinity avenging crimes. They wished therefore by their audacity and wickedness to move the Godhead to anger, so that they might see whether it would be stirred up to avenge itself. But when they saw there was no voice, nor sense, and that God gave no sign of anger, no sign of vengeance; but on the contrary they sinned with impunity, were free from all punishment, indeed all things flowed to them according to their wish and succeeded prosperously, then as if victors, indeed conquerors of the Godhead, as if it were nothing, or powerless to avenge, they began to live secure in their impiety, to luxuriate and revel. Thus a Castro.
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16. Then they spoke, — that is to say, then the just and pious undertook the defense of God's cause against the blasphemers and atheists, namely His providence and justice, and they encouraged one another to this end, namely by asserting those things which they had learned from the fathers and from Scripture, namely that God in this life dissimulates many things and leaves them unpunished, so that He may punish them more severely and fully in the future, and so that on the day of general judgment He may exercise justice upon all. Thus St. Jerome and commonly others, with one exception, Arias, who translates: Then the devastated ones fearing the Lord were, namely by the impious and atheists attacking them with impunity: because, he says, in Hebrew dibber, that is to speak, sometimes signifies to devastate, to destroy, as in Psalm II, 5, and II Paralipomenon XXII, 10. Whence deber signifies plague and death. And the Lord hearkened. — Some think these are the words of the pious, which namely they themselves spoke in defense of God's providence, that is to say, God does not neglect, but hearkens to the words and deeds both of the just and of the wicked, and writes them in the book of His memory, so that on the day of judgment He may bring them forth and publicly read and judge them. Thus Lyra and Clarius. Others better judge these to be the words of the Prophet, that is to say, God hearkens both to the blasphemies of the impious and to the apologies of the pious, and has written them in the book of memorial, that is of memory, and this for the sake of the pious fearing Him and thinking upon His name, who namely think upon, invoke, preach and celebrate the name and glory of God with constant veneration; so that on the day of judgment He may show their faith, religion and piety toward Him to the whole world and reward them with an eternal crown. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Hugh and others. Note: The book of memorial is the book of memory, as the Hebrew and Greek have it. The Syriac and Antiochene Arabic translate: A book of remembrance is written; the Alexandrine Arabic: The Lord heard these things; and wrote a book in which is this, and made it a memorial (remembrance) before all those fearing the Lord, so that they fear His name. For God in His memory, as it were in a book of memorial, notes and writes down the words and deeds of individual men, so that on the day of judgment He may read them from it before all men and angels, and decree to each according to his merits or demerits a reward or punishment. Whence concerning Him Daniel says, cap. VII, 10: "Judgment (that is God the judge with the saints, as it were His assessors) sat, and the books were opened." And John, Apocalypse XX, 12: "The books were opened, and another book was opened which is of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works." See the words there. Here therefore the "book of those fearing God" is the book of predestination, which elsewhere is called the "book of God." Whence in Exodus XXXII, Moses says to God: "Either blot me out of thy book which thou hast written;"; and "the book of the living," as in Psalm LXVIII: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living." The same is called "the book of heaven. Rejoice ye, because your names are written in heaven," Luke X, 20. The same is called by St. John in the Apocalypse frequently the "book of life": because in it God has written the saints and the elect unto eternal life. This however is called the "book of memorial"; in Hebrew ziccaron, that is of memory, that is of the divine mind; which elect ones are always before Him, as those whom God pursues with a special love, favor and care, so that He may transfer them in His time into His kingdom. Thus in Deuteronomy cap. XXXII, 43, God says: "Are not these things laid up with me, sealed up in my treasures?" namely in memorial books, that is in the archives of the divine mind. Thus St. Cyril: "The book of memory is written," he says, "for those fearing God, whom he says will be familiar to him, and intimate at the time of acquisition, when namely Christ shall descend from the throne of majesty with attending angels, and shall set the sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left." For indeed in God there is not properly memory, which is of things past: for nothing passes away from God, but all things are as it were present. He speaks therefore in human fashion: because indeed things past are preserved in memory among men, hence he attributes the same to God. He calls therefore the mind of God knowing all things memory, inasmuch as He knows those things which are past to us; and treasures them in Himself, and preserves them in His knowledge. Whence St. Augustine, in Psalm CXXXVII: "Then," he says, "God is said to remember, when He acts; then to forget, when He does not act. For neither does forgetfulness fall upon God, because in no way is He changed; nor remembrance, because He does not forget." The same, lib. X Confessions cap. XIV: "Memory," he says, "is as it were the belly of the mind, etc. Perhaps therefore as food from the belly by ruminating; so these things from memory by remembering are brought forth." But God remembers nothing, nor does He draw forth anything hidden from the belly and bosom of memory, inasmuch as He beholds and sees all things actually. Again this book is called a book of memory, because it will inscribe the saints unto eternal memory, fame and glory, according to that Psalm CXI, 6: "In eternal memory shall the just be;" since all the glory and pomp of the impious and of the world passes away like smoke, according to that Psalm IX, 8: "Their memory has perished with a crash." And Psalm XXXIII, 17: "Their memory has perished from the earth." Do you therefore wish for memory and an eternal name? Seek it not among men, but with God; not on earth, where all memory shall end with the world, but in heaven, according to that Wisdom VIII, 13: "I shall have through this (namely practical wisdom, that is virtue) immortality and eternal memory." And Wisdom IV, 1: "O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! for the memory of it is immortal." And Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 28, Wisdom says: "My memory is unto generations of ages." Furthermore, what reward in this book as a monument God has decreed for the pious and just, he adds, saying:
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17. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord, as a peculiar treasure, etc. — He alludes to books of memory, namely to the annals and diaries of kings, of which Esther II, 23, in which the merits of Mordecai were written; on account of which Ahasuerus exalted him. Thus the Pontiff has a book of memory, in which he writes the merits of prelates; whom he intends to raise to the episcopate or cardinalate. In the day that I make (that is, shall make, namely judgment) as a peculiar treasure, — that is to say, In the day of judgment those who fear me, and believe in and defend my providence, shall be to me as a peculiar treasure, that is, as a people proper and peculiar to me dedicated, and blessed by my vision and fruition. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Lyra and others. Note: For peculiar treasure in Hebrew it is segulla, that is, a select portion, a rare and dear thing, a precious treasure, an outstanding treasure. He alludes to Exodus XIX, 5: "You shall be to me a peculiar treasure out of all peoples." See what is said there. For just as in the old law the Israelites were a peculiar treasure, that is, the inheritance of God, and a people chosen by God out of all nations: so in the new law the peculiar treasure of God are Christians and the just through grace, who therefore in heaven shall be the peculiar treasure of God through glory, possessed by God, and in turn possessing God, which last thing Malachi properly intends here: for he speaks of the day of judgment, and of the rewards of the saints. Therefore peculiar treasure is taken here otherwise than among the ancient Romans and jurists. For peculium, says Festus, is derived from pecus (cattle), and is whatever has been acquired and gained by anyone's labor and industry. And it is properly that of slaves, like the money of fathers of families and nobles. Whence among the ancients all patrimony was called peculium; because their entire substance consisted of cattle. Ulpian, On Peculium, book Depositi: Peculium, he says, was called as it were small money, or small patrimony. But Tubero defined peculium thus, that which a slave with his master's permission has set apart from his master's accounts, deducting from it whatever is owed to the master. Florentinus in the book Peculium, Digest, On Peculium: Peculium, he says, consists in that which anyone has prepared for himself by his frugality, or has merited to be given to him by anyone through his office, and which someone wished his slave to have as it were as his own patrimony. Hence Celsus in the book If a chorus, Digest, On Legacies, III, writes that money without peculium, that is without fruit and gain, is fragile. But here peculium is taken for a select inheritance, and a rare and dear treasure. The elect, however, can be called the peculiar treasure of Christ by the prior signification, because by the labor and price of the blood of Christ, who assumed a servile nature on account of them, they have been purchased, according to that: "You are bought with a great price, glorify and bear God in your body," I Corinthians VI. This shall be a great glory of the saints, that they shall be the future peculiar treasure and treasure of God, just as the reprobate shall be the slaves and peculiar treasure of the devil, according to that saying of Christ: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels," Matthew XXV, 41. Hence this peculiar treasure is called by the Apostle the lot of the saints, the kingdom of Christ and the family of God: "Giving thanks," he says, "to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love," Colossians I, 12. And: "When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father," I Corinthians XV, 24. And: "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God," Ephesians II, 19. Foreseeing this, Isaiah, cap. XLIV, 5: "This one, he says, shall say: I am the Lord's; and this one shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand, To the Lord; and shall surname himself by the name of Israel." Furthermore, God adorns this his peculiar treasure, namely the saints and the blessed, far more than a father of a family cultivates his peculium, or a king or queen adorns his treasure. For since he holds them in the highest love, equally as in honor, therefore he fills them with all joy, abundance, happiness, nay even with himself and makes them blessed. Whence St. Augustine, book X of The City of God, chapter VII: "Deservedly," he says, "those established in heavenly seats, immortal and blessed, who rejoice together in the participation of their Creator, firm in His eternity, certain in His truth, holy in His gift." And in Psalm LXXXVII, explaining near the end that passage: As the rejoicing of all (or, as he himself reads it, the delighting of all) is the dwelling in thee: "We shall be like unto Him," he says, "because we shall see Him as He is. There our whole business will be nothing other than to praise God and to enjoy God. And what else shall we seek, where He alone suffices through whom all things were made? We shall be inhabited and we shall inhabit; all things shall be subjected to Him, so that God may be all in all. Blessed therefore are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord, they shall praise thee for ever and ever. In this one blessed idle business." And in the Soliloquies, chapter XXXV: "O how glorious is the kingdom, in which with thee, O Lord, all the saints reign clothed in light as with a garment, having upon their head a crown of precious stone! O kingdom of eternal blessedness; where thou, O Lord, the hope of the saints, and the diadem of glory, art seen face to face by the saints, making them joyful on all sides in thy peace, which surpasseth all understanding! There infinite joy, gladness without sadness, salvation without pain, a way without labour, light without darkness, life without death, all good without all evil. Where youth never grows old, where life knows no end, where beauty never fades, where love never grows cold, where health never withers, where joy never decreases: because there the highest good is possessed, which is to see always the face of the Lord of hosts. Happy therefore are they who from the shipwreck of the present life have already merited to arrive at such joys: unhappy alas! are we and miserable, who drag our ship through the waves of this great sea and its stormy gulfs, not knowing whether we shall be able to reach the port of salvation! Unhappy, I say, whose life is in exile, whose way is in peril, whose end is in doubt," etc. And I will spare them. — To spare among the Latins properly signifies to touch little, to abstain, to give pardon, to remit vengeance. Hence by antiphrasis the Fates were called the Parcae, because they spare no one, whom the pagans feigned to be three, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, and whom Cicero, in book III of On the Nature of the Gods, considers to be daughters of Erebus and Night, and to be the Fates, in that they confer good and evil upon men being born. Whence comes that saying of Cleanthes: The Fates lead the willing, the unwilling they drag. They feign them to preside over the lives of men, and to conduct it by spinning as with thread and warp. For Clotho holds the distaff, Lachesis spins, and Atropos cuts. Whence Virgil, eclogue IV: The Parcae, in harmony with the stable divinity of fate. Thus here it can be taken, as if to say: I will spare your past sins, as being already blotted out through your repentance and my forgiveness, and buried in eternal oblivion, nor shall I exact any vengeance or punishment for them. Wherefore whatever is sad, as if from cruel Fates and their decrees, I will ward off and repel. Secondly, to spare is the same as to preserve: and then in the past tense it has parsi, says Donatus; for otherwise it has peperci. Thus Plautus in the Pot of Gold: "On a feast day," he says, "if you squander anything, you may lack on a working day, unless you have spared." And Virgil, book X of the Aeneid: Thou speakest of silver and gold, what thousand talents. / Spare for thy sons (spare, that is, preserve.) Hence Cicero, in the oration for Quinctius, opposes sparing and destroying, as if contraries: "To murder a citizen," he says, "no good man wishes even by right: for he prefers to remember that he, when he could have destroyed, spared; than that when he could have spared, he destroyed." The same in the oration for Caelius opposes sparing and despoiling: "Let youth," he says, "spare its own chastity, lest it despoil another's." Thus it is taken here. Whence the Septuagint translates: I will choose them; others: I will have mercy on them; others: I will be merciful to them. For the Hebrew chamal signifies the affection of piety, mercy, indulgence, by which for example a father loves his son, has mercy on him, indulges him, protects him, cherishes him, and does not allow him to be afflicted by any evil. Thus indeed God will protect and preserve His elect on the day of judgment, when He will not allow them to be afflicted by the sentence of damnation, by fire, or by anything else by which the damned will be afflicted, even if they were parents, children, relatives, or friends of the elect. It is therefore a metalepsis, I will spare, that is, I will have mercy, and I will protect them from the common curse by which I will strike the wicked. For those whom we love, and on whom we have mercy, we spare in a common calamity. Whence Theodoret: I will spare, he says, that is, I will vindicate them for myself, and will free them from the hand of the impious. Thus is 'to spare' taken, II Kings XXI, 7: "The king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan:" he spared him, that is, he embraced him with a pious affection of mercy, he took him as a ward into his care, cherished him, nourished him as the son of Jonathan who was most dear to him. For Mephibosheth had not sinned, so that David would forgive him his sin and properly spare him. And Ezekiel XVI, 5: "No eye spared you," that is, no one had mercy upon you. The Prophet signifies here two general rewards of the elect: first, that they shall be a peculiar people, that is, a people peculiar to God, and therefore shall be heaped upon by Him with all honor, beauty, happiness and glory. Second, that He shall spare them, that is, shall remove from them the fear of damnation, of hell, and of all evil, and shall make them certain and secure that they shall be blessed eternally, and shall never feel anything of sorrow or evil; just as on the other hand the damned shall have a twofold punishment: the first, the lack of all consolation and good; the second, an abundance of all misery, torment and evil. For great shall be the joy of the blessed, when they shall see themselves freed from the crackling fires of hell, and from other horrible evils, in which they shall see the impious involved so many and so great, especially because they shall see that they themselves at some time through their sins deserved the same, and would truly have fallen into them, had not God freed them. Wherefore they shall sing: "The mercies of the Lord, because we are not consumed," because we are not damned: "Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul would almost have dwelt in hell." And the song of Moses: "Let us sing to the Lord: for He is gloriously magnified: the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea:" He hath freed us from the hand of Pharaoh, that is, of the devil, of sin and of hell, Exodus XV, 1. And the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and wonderful are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty: just and true are Thy ways, O King of ages. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and magnify Thy name?" Apocalypse cap. XV, 3.
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18. And you shall return and shall see, — as if to say: You, O impious ones, denying the providence of God, shall change your opinion on the day of judgment, though late and by force: for you shall see and shall truly feel how great is the difference between the just and the impious, when you shall see the latter consigned to eternal fire, the former to paradise and heaven, as Malachi explains more fully in the following chapter. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupertus, Ribera and others.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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3, 4 « ecce ego mitto angelum meum et praeparabit viam ante faciem meam ; et. statim. veniet. ad. templum. suum . Dominator quem vos quaeritis et angelus testamenti quem vos vultis ; ecce venit, dicit Dominus exercituum » ; — ex quibus verbis eos conquestos esse elucet, quod vaticinia messianica aut, non aut aequo tardius implerentur ; cum enim post querelam et impatientiae significationem 2, 1"1 ubi est Deus iudicii ? propheta cum emphasi respondeat : veniet Dominator quem vos quaeritis et angelus testamenti quem vos desideratis (hebr.), in aperto est positum eos vaticiniorum messianicorum impletionem appetiisse, qua demum ex misera conditione se iri ereptum cum impatientia exspectabant. Propheta vaticinium olim ab Isaia editum in mentem revocat atque repetens confirmat (Is. 40, 3) — id quod etiam locutione ostenditur eadem 327 ^22 quae non occurrit nisi Is. 40, 3 ; 51, 14; 62, 10 et hoc nostro loco. Illa « vox clamantis » hoc loco tamquam nuntius a Domino missus designatur, qui ex more orientalium regi advenienti viam paret (cf. ad Is. 40, 3). Hoc legato divino, per quem populus ad Messiam recipiendum erit praeparandus, misso ipse Dominus veniet £Eaí;vge de repente, subito (hebr.), extemplo (cf. Prov. 6, 185), quasi modo inexspectato ita ut adsit ex improviso inter populum suum et in templo suo, quamvis eius legatus praecesserit. Cum igitur legato misso tamen venturus sit pro populo repente et ex improviso, innui videtur, pro maiore populi parte illam annuntiationem et praeparationem per legatum parum fructus esse allaturam. Veniet autem jiT&21 Dominator xax' 25oyn», qua appellatione septies praeter nostrum locum occurrente non designatur nisi Iahve, Deus verus (Ex. 23, 11; 34, 23. Is. 1, 24; 3, 1; 10, 16. 33; 19, &). Etiam nostro loco intelligi debere Deum, praeterea ex eo patet, quia qui loquitur, est Dominus exercituum; sed is certo veniet, cuius via praeparatur et ante quem legatus mittitur ; atqui legatus dicitur mitti ante eum qui loquitur i. e. ante Dominum exercituum, ut ei viam paret. Idem innuitur, quia Dominator venit ad templum suum, templum autem non est nisi templum Dei (cf. Rib. Sanct. Sa). Quamvis enim 52'1 etiam palatium regis significet (cf. 4 Reg. 21, 1. Is. 13, 22. Am. 8, 3)!, tamen iuremerito hoc loco cum LXX et Syro vertitur templum, quod scil. alia voce non designatur et ita apud Zachariam, Aggaeum, Esdram, Nehemiam frequenter nominatur. Insuper cum eo tempore regia domus non exsisteret et vox unice de templo usurparetur, aliud Malachiae auditores intcllizere non poterant. Idem ex
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v. 3. 4 colligitur; is enim qui venit ad templum suum, sedet ad emundandos templi ministros, levitas, ut offerant sacrificium purum. Simul ulterius declaratur, qua ratione templum futurum sit ex Aggaei prophetia (2, 1) gloriosius priore, cum ad templum secundum ipse Dominus sit venturus, uti iam Ezechiel rem symbolice repraesentari viderat (Ez. 43, 1; cf. Sanct. Lap. Sa, Men.). Veniet autem promissa implens tamquam angelus testamenti i. e. legatus, internuntius, conciliator foederis promissi (Lap. Tir.), ut «nuntius testamenti docendi et implendi» (Alb. Sanct.). Et apte quidem. Nam in Messia demum absolvuntur et complentur promissiones patriarchis datae; in Messia foedus illis propositum perficitur: omnes in eo inveniunt benedictionem et in eo omnium bonorum divinorum praebetur amplissima communicatio; insuper instauratio messianica tamquam pactum novum et excellens pacis et iustitiae, pactum sempiternum quod nequeat dissolvi, apud prophetas iam est descriptum, ita ut nunc Dominator tamquam huius foederis mediator et sponsor designetur (cf. Is. 49, 6; 49, 8; 53, 3; 54, 10; 59, 21; 61, 8. Ier. 31, 31; 32, 40; 33, 90. Ez. 16, 60; 34, 23. Dan. 9, 27. Os. 2, 18). Et ita Christus «novi testamenti mediator » appellatur (Hebr. 9, 15). Igitur sollemni modo vaticinia olim data confirmantur et murmurantibus et conquerentibus, quod promissiones in longum differantur, cum emphasi repetitur: ecce venit, et Domini exercituum potestas et maiestas promittentis et asseverantis ut certissimum pignus perhibetur. Insigne hoc loco testimonium de Messiae divinitate continetur. Ultimus prophetarum hanc veritatem quam maxime clare et distincte enuntiat. Eam iam proposuerat Is. 9, 5; eam adumbrari facile concesseris in Ps. 2; praesertim Ps. 44, 7, etiam Ps. 109, 1. 3et Zach. 12, 10; qui omnes loci hoc oraculo illustrantur et absolvuntur. Neque dubitari potest, quin Dominator et angelus testamenti sit unus idemque !. Id iam ex modo loquendi et parallelismo colligitur. Quaerebant enim : ubi est Deus iudicii ? respondet propheta : is quem quaeritis et desideratis veniet ; illi foederis promissi impletionem gloriosam expetunt ; respondet propheta Deum ut talem se exhibiturum ; demum cum concludat : ecce venit, aperte declarat de «no eodemque esse sermonem institutum. Quare perperam aliqui angelum testamenti eum intelligunt, quem Dominus ut nuntium ante se mittendum promiserat (cf. Hitz.). Messias dicitur venire ad templum suum ; ibi ergo est proprius locus manifestationis eius divinae, ibi enim foederis antiqui quod ad perfectionem adducit centrum est collocatum, ibi in umbra et symbolo « gloria Domini » apparere olim solebat, ibi Deus inter populum suum inhabitare, ibi cor suum ponere dicebat; erzo quam maxime congruum erat, ut Messias in templo demum sese populo suo manifestaret. Idque quam praeclare Christus praestiterit, evangelia testantur, et propter eam rationem in Cana monuit : « nondum venit hora mea » (Ioan. 2, 4). Cum verba adeo sint clara et iam Aggaeus templi secundi gloriam annuntiasset, mirum est quod multi templum non proprie sed solum metaphorice accipiunt vel de Ecclesia, vel de anima quaque quae fide eum suscipiat, vel de beatissima Virgine, in qua carnem assumpserit, vel de humana natura, in qua Verbum divinum habitaverit (cf. S. Cyr. Theod. S. Augustin. Civ. D. 18, 39; M. 41, 593. Alb. Rib. ; eius explicationis mentionem quoque iniicit S. Hier.). Nuntius qui mittendus sit ad viam praeparandam, est, uti ex eventu et ex evangeliorum testimoniis apparet (cf. Matth. 3, 3; 11, 10. Marc. 1, 2. Luc. 1, 11; 3, 4), S. Ioannes Baptista, praecursor Domini in spiritu et virtute Eliae ; neque ulla adest ratio verba explicandi vel de angelo quodam, uti v. g. Ex. 33, 1, vel de serie integra quadam nuntiorum qui populum per reliquum tempus debeant praeparare ad adventum Domini, ut voluit Hengstenberg cum paucis aliis, uti Eichhorn et Theiner. Oraculum enim ita effertur, ut. de uno nuntio sermo sit, cuius adventus indicium esse possit Messiae iamjam appropinquantis ; ergo certus quidam intelligitur, qui simul atque exsistat et viam paret per exhortationem et institutionem ad poenitentiam (cf. Is. 40, 4), tempus quoque Messiae adesse cognosci debeat. Utrum autem talis nuntius sit futurus angelus an homo, ante eventum certo definiri vix poterit; at ex analogia cum 4, 8 et ex ratione et vi muneris prophetici, cuius pars maxima et praecipua sane est talis praeparatio, et fortasse etiam ex ipsa Messiae humana natura, in qua appariturus scitur (cf. Is. 1, 14. Ier. 31, 22. Mich. 5, 2), satis probabiliter sequitur, hominem nuntium illum fore. — Iudaei hic quoque fabulantur de Messia ben loseph, alii de angelo vastatore qui inimicos populi sit deleturus etc. ; cf. apud Reinke, Mal. p. 438. Barh. historice intelligi ait Michaelem (forte propter Dan. 12, 1) populi ducem, spiritualiter autem loannem B., de quo solo SS. Patres et interpretes catholici oraculum explanant. At vae illis qui peccatis et iniquitatibus immersi non innovationem internam et veram sanctitatem meditantur ! Illis erit iudex terribilis. Quare ii quoque qui 2, 1] tanta cum impatientia contra Deum murmurant, bene perpendant num parati sint ad talem iudicem secure suscipiendum. Erit enim adventus eius tempus iudicii severi et tempus quo palea a tritico et scoria ab auro argentoque examinatione districta separabitur : v. 9 « et quis poterit cogitare diem adventus eius ? et quis stabit ad videndum eum ? ipse enim quasi ignis conflans et quasi herba fullonum » ;, — hebr. et quis sustinebit diem adventus eius ? et quis (erit) consistens, cum apparet ; ipse enim est quasv ignis conflatoris et. sicut sal lixivii ! lotorum ; secunda versus pars explicat, cur adventus Messiae sit periodus iudicii. Uti enim iam per Isaiam praedictum est, in spiritu iudicii et spiritu ardoris abluet sordes filiarum Sion et sanguinem Ierusalem lavabit (Is. 4, 4) ; ipse, ut Ezechiel annuntiavit (34, 20), iudicabit inter pecus pingue et macilentum ; et secundum Zachariam ducet eos per ignem et uret eos sicut uritur argentum et probabit eos sicut probatur aurum (Zach. 13, 9). Vae igitur scoriae, quae igne conflatoris absumetur ! Adventu Messiae mali ac reprobi ex Israel abscindentur, et quis verus sit Israelita apparebit; tunc enim fiet illud : convertam manum meam ad te et excoquam ad purum scoriam tuam et auferam omne stannum tuum (Is. 1, 25), Sion enim in iudicio redimetur (Is. 1, 2'1). Simile iudicium contra impios quo a populo Dei excisi ruinae tradebantur, iam factum esse exsilii tempore, prophetae iisdem comparationibus adhibitis docuerunt (cf. ler. 6, 21. Ez. 22, 20) ; quare si nunc eadem de adventu Messiae dicuntur, graviter admonentur, ne inani figucia propter suum ab Abraham descensum sibi salutem promittant, sed ut potius sinceris mentibus studio pietatis incumbentes Messiam iudicem secure expectare possint. Talis autem doctrina tempore Malachiae eo aptius et efficacius proferri censenda est, quia cum prophetae antecedentes adeo frequenter et sedulo indolem spiritualem et veram sanctitatem instaurationis messianicae inculeaverint, quam maxime aequum et iustum erat, ut. demum addi- : scerent Iudaei veram morum emendationem et sinceram pietatem esse Messiae obviam ferendam, quod si quis neglexerit, Messiam fore ruinae et condemnationi. Similia quoque minabantur prophetae, cum diem Domini magnum ac terribilem describerent (cf. Ioel 2, 41. Soph. 1, 15). Tamquam talis iudex Messias a praecursore suo exhibetur, quippe qui habeat ventilabrum in manu sua ad purgandam aream suam, ut paleas comburat igne inexstinguibili, et qui iam securim ad radicem arborum posuerit, ut omnem arborem quae non faciat fructum bonum, excidat et in ignem mittat (Matth. 3, 40. 12. S. Cyr.), et tamquam talem se ipsum declaravit cum diceret : ignem veni mittere in terram et quid volo nisi ut accendatur (cf. S. Hier. Cyr. Lap.). Quare a tali commi- 1. €f. ad Iob 9, 30 de voce t3 ; propter eam Hifz. iam v. 1 pro angelo testamenti 1113 angelum vel ministrum salis lixivii textui obtrudere vult ! natione proiis qui 2, 47 describuntur, id colligitur quod iam Amos monuerat : vae desiderantibus diem Domini ; ad quid eam vobis ? dies Domini ista tenebrae et non lux (Am. 5, 18). Eo vaticinio simul egregio exemplo docemur, prophetas locis singulis unam solum partem proponere, cetera autem silentio premere. Ita hoc loco de Messia pars iudicis declaratur, quam utique etiam in primo suo adventu obivit et ipso regno messianico fundato exercuit. Verum quis nesciat de eodem adventu alia quoque praedici, quae Messiae suavitatem, misericordiam, amorem tenerrimum in peccatores ostendant et opus reconciliationis et mortem pro reis describant ? Haec igitur vaticinia minime inter se pugnant. Quare neque opus est cum S. Augustino (Civ. D. 20, 93. M. 41, 699) nostrum oraculum de ultimo iudicio solo intelligere (id quod sequenti quoque versu excluditur) neque cum 7/eod. M. de tempore Machabaeorum ; hic in eam interpretationem impulsus est, quia, « quamvis Christus officio iudicis discrevit Iudaeorum improbos a melioribus, credentes sibi ad meliorem frugem traducens, ineredulos poena afficiens, attamen exploratum est quod generali ratione scopum habuerit adventus sui illum quem beatus Ioannes declaravit dicens : ecce agnus Dei, qui tollit peccatum mundi » ; quasi unum alterum excluderet aut propheta integram Messiae doctrinam et opus una eademque in sede pertractare deberet. | Tale autem iudicium praecipua quadam ratione in eos fore dicitur, qui vi muneris scientiam Dei custodire aliosque docere et mediatores esse debent inter Deum et populum (cf. 2, 5 seq.), et quem in finem instituendum sit declaratur
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v. 3 « et sedebit conflans et emundans argentum et purgabit filios Levi et colabit eos quas: aurum et quasi argentum ; et erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in iustitia » ; — iudicium enim a domo Dei incipit (cf. Ez. 9, 6. 1 Petr. 4, 11) et merito ab illis qui ceteris exemplo et salutis subsidio esse debent. Similitudine conflatoris innuitur, per Dei gratiam adesse metalla pretiosa sed scoriis maculata et infecta ; adesse scil. in populo semen sanctum quod probatione sit educendum, adesse (ut exemplo S. Pauli utar) olivam bonam, at ramos malos esse exscindendos. Messias igitur sacerdotes et ministros puros et aptos sibi comparabit ; sedebit i. e. « non raptim et perfunctorie id faciet, sed ex professo » (Mar.) « ut fiant nitidi instar argenti » (Lap.). Quantopere sacrum sibi effecturus sit sacerdotium quantaque cura eorum sanctitatem sit promoturus, ipsa verborum copia declaratur. Eius partem iam cernimus impletam in frequentibus illis reprehensionibus et castigationibus, quibus Christus sacerdotes et legis doctores perstrinxit. Verum ibi hon est sistendum, sed generalis traditur norma, qua Messias in regno suo est usurus et qua satis proponitur, quales expostulet ministros et sacerdotes. Cur autem ita solerter sint purgandi et ad summum splendorem ad instar auri adducendi, ratio redditur : et erunt Domino offerentes oblationem (minchah) in iustitia (hebr.) i. e. ut sint offerentes... Minchah autem dicitur, quia ex 1, 11 tempore messianico aliud sacrificium iam non exsistet nisi oblatio munda, quae uti in se est sanctissima et purissima, ita ut a sanctis et puris ministris offeratur, quam maxime est congruum ; quare dicit in 2ustitia. offerentes, ut animi sacerdotum rei oblatae correspondeant. Atque sicut ii qui sunt Christi, S. Paulo docente semen sunt Abrahae, secundum promissionem heredes (Gal. 3, 29), ita qui in munus et officium levitarum succedunt idque sublimiore modo exercent, recte vocantur filii Levi. Ceterum ipsa impletio non immerito censetur esse inchoata a filiis Levi proprie dictis; nam « multa etiam turba sacerdotum obediebat fidei » (Act. 6, 71). Tali iudicio et igne conflatorio scoriae removebuntur et exsistet plebs Deo sancta ; quare oblatio illa in iustitia facta Deo erit gratissima :
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v. 4 « et placebit Domino sacrificium Iuda et lerusalem sicut dies saeculi el sicut anni antiqui » ; — hebr. iterum minchah dicitur ; cf. 4, 11. Iuda et Ierusalem commemoratur, quia prophetae proxime interest suis popularibus iudicium emundationis annuntiare (2, 17) et quia ab Ierusalem et Iuda regnum messianicum originem ducit; salus enim est a Iudaeis et ab iis propagata est in orbem universum et ita factum est, ut hereditas Domini quo nomine olim appellabatur Palaestina, iam universa terra exsisteret et proin in ordinem et dignitatem Iudae et Ierusalem succederet. Olim, priscis temporibus populus quandoque magnam Deo exhibebat fidem et obedientiam ; unde similiter apud Isaiam (4, 26) dicitur : « et restituam iudices tuos ut fuerunt prius et consiliarios tuos sicut antiquitus » ; ita laudatur populi fides qua Deo obsequens Aegypto excessit (ler. 2, 2); tempore Davidis toto corde vota offerebat Deo (1 Par. 29, 9 seq.) etc. Apte adducuntur a compluribus verba in canone Missae : « supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris et accepta habere sicuti accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel et sacrificium patriarchae nostri Abrahae et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech, sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam » (cf. Rib. Sanct. Lap. Men.). De priscis quoque sacrificiis dicitur : et respexit Dominus ad Abel et ad munera eius; odoratusque est Dominus odorem suavitatis (Gen. 4, 4; 8, 291), et sacrificiorum institutio et oblatio facta est, ut sint in odorem suavissimum in conspectu Domini (cf. Ex. 29, 25. Lev. 1, 9. 13. 11; 2, 2. 9; 4, 34 ; 6, 15 eto.). A levitis igitur qui adeo ab officio recesserant (2, 8), incipit iudicium messianicum ; verum ibi non sistet, sed ad totam plebem extendetur v. 5$ « et accedam ad vos in iudicio et ero testis veloz maleficis et adulteris el. periuris et qui calumniantur mercedem mercenarii, viduas et pupillos, et opprimunt peregrinum, nec timuerunt me, dicit Dominus exercituum » ; — haec est responsio ad murmur et expostulationem 2, 171; in qua ratio quoque continetur amplissima, :cur populus in misera et afflicta conditione relinquatur ; praeterea « cum inter vos venero, intelligetis, utrum ego malum probem mihique placeant impii, quemadmodum asserere audetis » (Calm.). Ita se Deum iudicii esse luculenter probat. Quare verba haec acrem iam comminationem pro tempore Malachiae exprimunt (cf. Rib. Sanct.), neque ad ultimum iudicium vel alterum Christi adventum directe et per se sunt. referenda. Scelera redarguit occulta et quae in manifesto fiunt (S. Cyr. Sanct. Lap.); erit testis velox i. e. promptus, qui statim reum criminis convincit, ut nulla tergiversatio, nulla dissimulatio, celatio nulla fieri possit (cf. Rib. Schegg), et qui hoc sensu ex consequenti celer et velox esse dici potest in poenis repetendis (cf. Theod. M. Barh.). De maleficis vel incantatoribus vide Ex. 77, 11; 22, 11. Deut. 18, 10. Dan. 2, 2; vocem hebr. explicant mussitare, carmina magica ad praestigia efficienda proferre ; LXX praebent oapuaxcóc. Eiusmodi praestigiatores etiam post exsilium inter Iudaeos adfuisse praeter Zach. 10, 2 etiam Act. 8, 9; 13, 6 et testimonio Iosephi constat (Ant. 90, 6 ; de bello iud. 2, 12, 23). Hebr. proprie iurare ad mendacium, ita scil. ut iusiurandum serviat mendacio et fraudi; cf. Lev. 49, 12; calumniari i. e. opprimere ; eandem locutionem hebr. S. Hier. Deut. 24, 14 reddit negare mercedem. Ultimo loco tamquam omnium criminum fons et origo assignatur defectus timoris Dei i. e. quia Deum neque verentur neque colunt; fidelitas, iustitia et quaecumque demum vitam reddunt homine dignam sine cultu Dei conservari nequeunt et experientia tristi constat eos qui Deo fidem negant, saepissime artibus praestigiatorum plenissimam fidem adhibere. Demum ratio affertur, qua patet Deum fideliter verba sua impleturum esse
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v. 6 « ego enim Dominus et non mutor ; et vos, filii lacob, non estis consumpti » ; — Deus est secundum nomen suum essentiale Jahve, 6 à» (cf. Ex. 3, 13; et ad Os. 12, 3. Ioel 2, 39. Hab. 3, 18. Zach. 13, 9), qui ut talis plenitudinem in se complectens «o5 esse et actus exsistens purissimus etiam eo ipso expers est omnis vicissitudinis vel mutationis ; apud eum enim « non est transmutatio nec vicissitudinis obumbratio » (lac. 1, 171). Hanc igitur divinae naturae immutabilitatem quae ex infinita eius perfectione necessario cansequitur, tamquam pignus proponit certissimum pro veritate verbi sui et adimpletione promissionum, Illud pignus ipsis ait iam exhibitum esse in ipso nomine suo essentiali quod veluti tesseram foederi suo praefixit et cuius nominis vim et efficaciam eos scituros i. e. experturos esse toties asseruit (cf. Os. 2, 22ibique adnotata). Hec nomine prolato et explicatione adiecta — in hebr. magis nervose sine particula coniunctionis : ego Iahve, non mutor ; ita quoque LXX et sim. apud Chald. — simul retunditur expostulatio 2, 1'1 (cf. S. Cyr. Rib.). Additur alterum pignus, proxime illis adiacens et quasi palpatum manibus, Deum populi sui causam esse tuiturum et tamquam Deum 1udici? illis promissa redditurum : vos non estis consumpti i. e. non estis deleti, sed erepti ex ruina ; adhuc perstat natio vestra ; restituti sunt in patriam ; Deus, uti per Ieremiam dixerat, consummationem non fecit (ler. 4, 27 ; 5, 18; 30, 41), sed populum servavit servabitque (cf. Lap. Mar. Men. Trochon). Alios populos destruxit, e sedibus expulit neque reduxit (cf. 4, 3. 4); sed filiis Iacob foedere sempiterno iungitur ; quare dabit veritatem Iacob, misericordiam Abraham, quae iuravit patribus a diebus antiquis (Mich. ", 20) et «si irritum potest fieri pactum meum cum die et pactum meum cum nocte, ut non sit dies et nox in tempore suo, et pactum meum irritum esse poterit cum David servo meo » (ler. 33, 90. 21).—Arctus nexus quo vos non consumimini vel vos non desinitis, deficitis priori sententiae adiungitur, ostendit sententiam non esse ita ancipitem, ut praeter promissionem minas quoque complectatur (Schegg), neque opus esse, ut per interrogationem efferatur : nonne vos defecistis, nonne debiliores redditi estis (Ewald, Reinke)? De hoc enim conqueruntur (2, 17) ; ergo idem eis a Deo non diceretur nisi causa aliqua adiecta, cur in miseram conditionem sint redacti.
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Quam parum parati sint, ut Messiam iudicem secure excipiant, ulterius vates ostendit reprehendens eorum negligentiam in vectigalibus quae Domino debent solvendis. Hac accusatione illorum cum Deo expostulatio (2, 1) ulterius retunditur et vera panditur causa, cur afflicta conditione rebusque miseris utantur. Quare haec quoque sermonis pars arcte cum priore cohaeret. Increpatiónem vates orditur ostendens eorum malitiam et perversitatem esse longa generationum serie inolitam atque inveteratam : v. "| « Á diebus enim patrum vestrorum recessistis a legitimis meis et. non custodistis » ; — particula enim neque in hebr. neque apud LXX, Syrum, Chald. habetur ; quare tuto negligitur et sensus habita rationc certe melius omittitur. Arguit Deus: non nuper solum male egistis « nec semel, ut erroris mereamini veniam, sed hereditariam habetis impietatem ex diebus patrum vestrorum a legitimis meis recedendo et non custodiendo quae praecepi » (S. Hier.). Quam vera sit ea accusatio, iam Pentateuchus et libri historici abunde probant (cf. Ex. 39, 4. Num. 25, 3. Iud. 2, 11; 3,125; 4, 1; 6, 1 etc.) ; quare saepius a prophetis repetitur (Ier. 2, 5; "1, 25; 41, 1; 16, 11. Ez. 16,3; 20, 8. Am. 5, 26 etc.). — Augetur accusatio perversitatis, quia Deus nunquam destitit, mittere ad populum qui eum admoneant, et quia eos continuo per prophetas et legem ad sinceram poenitentiam invitavit ; illi autem monitiones aegre tulerunt neque in se culpam agnoverunt : «revertimini ad me et revertar ad vos, dicit Domiyus exercituum ; et dixistis : in. quo revertemur » ? — cf. Zach. 14, 3;i. e. si Deusa populo est aversus et ideo eum affligi sinit et rebus angustis premi, non alia ratio est quaerenda nisi quia populus a cultu Dei et pietate mentes etstudia avertit ; quare toto corde et sinceris animis ad Deum sese convertant oportet. Yerum ita obdurati sunt taleque callum inveterata rerum divinarum socordia obduxerunt, ut eam monitionem ne intelligerent quidem vel omnia in cultu Dei a se rite praestari sibi magna praesumptione persuaderent. Quare ac si nihil haberent quod emendarent et sola iam admonitione offenderentur, superbe respondent : in quo revertemur ? omnia scil. optime fiunt ; nihil adest quod iure corripiatur. Ita sacer vates eorum animos contumaces, sibi placentes, et a vera pietate et Dei reverentia alienos delineat. Respondet Deus exemplo prolato, ex quo patet quanto contemptu et qua fraude cum Deo agant
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v. 8 « si affiget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me? et dixistis : in quo configimus te ? in decimis et. in. primitiis » ; —affigere, configere intellige vehementi dolore afficere, affligere, vel contumeliis obruere. Verbum hebr. LXX exprimunt notione supplantandi ; « pro quo Aquila et Symmachus et Theodotio posuerunt si fraudat, ut sit sensus : si fraudat homo Deum, quia vos fraudastis me » (S. Hier.). Interrogatio est indignantis et cum populo expostulantis : num homo, creatura debilis et infirma, fraudulenter agit contra Dei majiestatem ? Fraudem committunt et quae debent non solvunt in decimis et in oblatione (hebr.). Idque contra Deum peccant, quia ex legis praescripto decimae erant solvendae Domno, qui unus erat terrae etagrorum possessor et herus, reliqui omnes autem eius clientes et servi; « omnes decimae terrae sive de frugibus sive de pomis arborum, Domini sunt et illi sanctificantur » (Lev. 27, 30) ; Deus autem illas decimas levitis dedit; «filiis autem Levi dedi omnes decimas Israelis in possessionem pro ministerio, quo serviunt mihi in tabernaculo foederis » (Num. 18, 21). Unde S. Hier. : «quia decimas et primitias levitis populus non reddebat, seipsum fraudem dicit Dominus sustinere, cuius ministri fame coacti et penuria templum deseruerint. Si enim per alios visitatur in carcere et aegrotus suscipitur et esuriens sitiensque cibum accipit atque potatur, cur non in ministris suis ipse decimas accipiat, et si non dentur, parte sua ipse privetur » ? De eadem socordia Nehemias secundo redux in urbem conqueritur (Neh. 13, 10 : et cognovi quód partes levitarum non fuissent datae). Oblatio '2*n variis modis erat facienda: ita vocabantur oblatio annua sicli dimidii (Ex. 30, 14), primitiae frugum quae offerendae erant Domino (Num. 153, 19), decimae decimarum quas sacerdotibus levitae solvebant (Num. 18, 26)et etiam portionesquaedam sacrificiorum, quae sacerdotibus contingebant (Lev. ', 14. 32-34 ; 10, 14. Num. 5, 9 etc.). Has oblationes et decimas se fideliter soluturos esse spoponderant foedusque cum Deo initum signaverant sub Nehemia (10, 3'1), quare eorum negligentia et fraus eo magis erat reprehensione digna. De verbo yap ita disserit S. Hier. : « LXX interpretati sunt si supplantat, pro quo Aquila et Symmachus et Theodotio posuerunt si fraudat... lingua Syrorum et Chaldaeorum interpretatur si a[figet ; unde et nos ante annos plurimos ita vertimus, magis ad mysterium Dominicae passionis, quam ad decimas ct primitias scripta referentes ». Syrus vocem vertit n*a opprimere, spoliare, decipere (cf. Bernstein, Lexicon syr.) et eam notionem defraudandi, fallendi euam recentüores vocitribuunt. S. Hier. etiam Prov. 22, 23 con[igere vertit. Secundum Theod. Aquila et Symmachus transtulerunt p3 &xocitoQGit dvÜowxo; Osóv ; Chald. notionem exprimit provocandi ad iram, quam signilicationem simul cum notione rapiendi *el furandi ad mera commenta reiicit Fürst C. Alii, uti Ges. Thes. p. 1190 vocem ex arabico notione primitiva abscondendi explicant. Iam Sanct. coniicit LXX. non y3p sed 3p7 legisse et ideo zepvitetv. reddidissc. In altero loco quo verbum occurrit, Prov. 22, 23 etiam Aq. notionem »*x0zXouv sim. ut S. Hier. exprimit ; ibi notio spoliandi ad sensum et contextum quadrat. Propter talem fraudem penuria, fame, sterilitate affliguntur
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v. 9 « et in penuria vos maledicti estis et me vos configitis, gens tota » ; — hebr. in maledictione maledicti estis et me fraudatis vos, gens tota i. e. vos universi, ordines omnes ita fraudulenter agunt ; « quid haec exsecratio sit, de qua propheta, ipsa versione tradit S. Hier., regionis nimirum sterilitas a Deo missa ob neglectam a Iudaeis decimarum oblationem » (Calm.). Sed si debita vectigalia solverint, abundantiam et prosperitatem Deus pollicetur fore maximam
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v. 10 « inferte omnem decimam 1n horreum et sit cibus in. domo mea et probate me super hoc, dicit Dominus, si non aperuero vobis cataractas coeli et effudero vobis benedictionem usque ad abundantiam » ; — cum emphasi dicitur omnem decimam, ne scil. fraude subtrahant et retineant, uti v. 8 dicitur ; hebr. afferte omnem decimam ad domum thesauri ; decimae afferebantur ad templum ; quare conclavia erant exstructa, in quae collectae decimae inferebantur (cf. 2 Par. 31, 11. Neh. 10, 38. 39 ; 13, 5. 12. 13). Has autem oblationes rite inferri vult Deus, ut sit alimentum iis, qui ministrant in domo sanctuarii mei, prout rite Chald. explanat ; quia turpe est, si ministri Domini negliguntur et ob penuriam et inediam ministerium altaris et templi derelinquere et alia ratione sibi victum conquirere coguntur, uti accidit Nehemia absente (Neh. 13, 10 : et cognovi quod partes levitarum non fuissent datae et fugisset unusquisque in regionem suam de levitis et cantoribus et his qui ministrabant). Verum si haec fideliter praestiterint, probate me in hoc (hebr.) i. e. facite hoc et experiemini, an sciam benefacere observantibus mandata mea (Rib.). Auferet scil. sterilitatem ; cataractas coeli aperire! largissimam dicit benedictionis coelestis effusionem, quae vehementis imbris ad instar in terram descendet ; praeterea « verbum effusionis nomen largitatis ostendit » (S. Hier.). Cum in regione orientali fertilitas unice dependeat ab aquae copia et ubi in deserto v. g. aquae apparuerint, etiam viror plantarum arborumque exsistat, modus loquendi prorsus est dptus et accommodatus, ut scil. cum.pluviarum copia et opportunitate abundantia frugum connectatur laetissima. Hebr. T"175371y varie concipiunt : veleres verba acceperunt, uti S. Hier.; LXX Éw; 109 ixxwwoÜ7vx: usque. dum sufficiat ; Syrus : usque dum dicatis : sufficit ; sim. Chald. In qua acceptione particulae negationis non salis ratio haberi videtur. Unde recentiores ad literam interpretantur : usque ad non - sufficientiam, usque ad. defectum sufficientiae vel copiae ; sed hoc quoque varie accipiunt : ita ut deficiat. frugibus condendis spatium, ul non sit sufficientia vasorum et horreorum ad capiendam copiam frugum (Ximchius aliique apud Ros., Ewald, Reinke, Koehler, Pressel et. quandoque provocant ad Zach. 10, 10). Alii eam locutionem ad Deum referentes explicant : usquo dum consumpta erit abundantia mea ; quod cum fieri nequeat, cum in Deo adsit copia inexhausta, promissionem dari magnificentissimam (Ros. Ges. Thes. p. 334). Alii demum vertunt : usque dum iam non erit indigentia i. e. usque ad copiam et abundantiam (Schegg, Keil, Trochon). Sensus quidem rite effertur ; at difficile intelligitur, quomodo et negationis particula et propria notio v1 sufficientia, copia servetur. Quare interpretatio illa : donec iam non sufficiant horreorum spatia, verbis maxime accommodata videtur ; ad quam vide exemplum Luc. 12, 18. Atque tum etiam messem abundantem ab omni nocumento proteget eamque servabit illaesam. Fieri enim posset, sicut notat S. Hier., ut agros irrigantibus pluviis esset quidem fertilitas, verum aut locusta aut bruchus aut aerugo aut eruca destrueret et labores hominum perirent ; propterea iungit et. dicit :
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v. 14 « et increpabo pro vobis devorantem et non corrumpel fructum terrae vestrae, nec erit sterilis vinea $n agro, dicit Dominus exercituum » ; — apte dicuntur locustae devorantes vel comedentes (hebr.) ; vide ad Ioel 4, 4. 1. Hebr. et non abortum vobis faciet vitis i. e. non fallet exspectationem vestram (cf. 2 Reg. 2, 19. 21 hebr.), scil. ut post laetam germinationem et uberes flores nullam afferat Quodsi ad Dominum reversi fuerint, omnem afflictionem ita ablatum iri promittit, ut benedictionibus ditati reliquis populis sint admirationi et aemulationi. Ergo habent si velint, quibus querelas illas (2, 17) ipsi funditus removeant ; si enim ipsi causam Dei fideliter tuentur, Deus quoque amplissimam eorum geret curam :
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v. 12 «et beatos vos dicent omnes gentes ; eritis enim vos terra desiderabilis, dicit Dominus ezercituum » ; — tunc scil. erit, quod iam per Moysen promittebatur Deut. 33, 99; cf. Zach. 8, 13. 15; et terra Israel tanta erit benedictione divina repleta, ut omnes fateantur eam esse terram beneplaciti divini (cf. Reinke) ; ex quo consequens erit, ut omnes talem terram desiderent et invidia quadam appetant. Ita scil. implebitur, quod Isaias indicat : non vocaberis ultra derelicta, sed vocaberis voluntas mea in ea (Is. 62, 4) i. e. terra, in qua Deus sibi beneplacet. Terra Edomitarum termin? vocantür impietatis et populus cui iratus est Dominus in aeternum (14, 4); aliter sortes cadent pro Israel : erit terra beneplaciti (hebr.) scil. divini, et exinde terra amoenitatis et desiderii (cf. ler. 3, 19. Ez. 20, 6. Zach. 1, 14. Ps. 1053, 24).
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v. 13 « Invaluerunt super me verba vestra, dicit Dominus ; et dixistis : quid locuti sumus con(ra te » ? — i. e. « plus et plus contra me crescunt » (Alb.) ; invalescunt optime reddit sensum verbi hebr. (cf. Pressel) ; dicit autem invalescere «multiplicatum et contentiosum sermonem, qui plerumqueesta tumultuante et concitata plebe, quae non tam ratione quam furore ac seditione regitur » (Sanct.) ; enuntiatur tumor et incrementum quo verba contra Deum (ita iunge hebr.) magis magisque insurgunt et acerbiores in dies expostulationes gignunt. Cuius rei specimen subiungitur
Querelae quas vates in hac parte perstringit, arcte referuntur ad antecedentem exhortationem, ita quidem ut qui murmurant, eam ob oculos habuisse eamque refutare voluisse videantur. Monuerat enim propheta : inferte omnem decimam... et probate me ; respondent : arrogantes probarunt Deum et salvi facti sunt ; promiserat propheta legem observantibus : beatos vos dicent ; respondent : custodivimus praecepta ; at nihilominus non nos ipsi, sed impii sunt beati dicendi. Unde expostulatio subsequens vel profecta est acontumacibus, qui negligentiam et socordiam suam in Dei cultu negantes omnia a se rite praestari perfracte asserebant et de vera ad Deum conversione ne cogitabant quidem, vel facta est aliquo temporis intervallo post antecedentem, postquam scil. verbis prophetae adducti in exteriore agendi ratione aliquid emendaverint ; quo facto statim bonorum omnium abundantiam sibi deberi existimaverint. At cum exteriori illi observantiae sincera pietas et verus Dei timor non iungeretur — prout ipsa expostulatio clare prodit — prosperitas quam exspectaverant, non est secuta. Unde spe deiecti ad acerbiorem accusationem Dei revertuntur. Neque ab hac sententia verba prophetae abludere videntur :
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v. 14 « dixistis : vanus est qui servit Deo et quod emolumentum, quia custodivimus praccepta eius et quia ambulavimus tristes coram Domino exercituum » ? — hebr. ?nane est servire Deo i. e. nihil affert utilitatis vel commodi ; e£ quod, lucrum scil. nobis exstitit, qui custodivimus custodiam Domini (hebr.) i. e. quae observanda, praestanda, vitanda praecepit, ad amussim praestitimus; immo afrate, squalide habitu lugentium et poenitentium, uti facere solebant ieiunantes, incedebant ; idque se facere existimabant coram Domino i. e. prae eius reverentia, Dei causa. Nisi ergo verba haec ad insigne mendacium sint referenda, ii loqui videntur, qui aliquos conatus exhibuerint ad promerendam sibi felicitatem et prosperitatem v. g. solvendo decimas, victimas rite offerendo, aliqua ieiunia sponte suscipiendo. Sed quantopere eorum mentes a vera pietate alienae exstiterint, ipso murmure nimis aperte manifestatur. Quare deficiénte spiritu interno illae praestationes ad censum eorum redigebantur, de quibus Dominus: ecce in die ieiunii vestri invenitur voluntas vestra... ecce ad lites et contentiones ieiunatis (Is. 58, 3. 4; cf. 1, 11. Ier. 6, 20. Am. 9, 91 etc.). Talibus vero operibus nulla rependitur a Domino merces. Illi autem excandescunt in Dominum et blasphemantes in Dei iustitiam et sanctitatem truces exclamare minime verentur:
3:15
v. 15 «ergo nunc beatos dicimus arrogantes, si quidem aedificati sunt. facientes impietatem, et tentaverunt. Deum et salvi facti sunt»; — superbi, protervi, inquiunt, 4? utique aedificantur i. e. opulentas construunt familias, posteros habent et numero et opibus florentes (Calm.), quae est propria aedificationis notio (cf. Gen. 16, 2 hebr. 30, 3 hebr. Ex. 1, 21); dein sensu latiore cum ad filios enutriendos etiam opes requirantur, aed?ficari generatim dicit prosperitate, honore, opibus florere et augeri. Ecce, inquiunt, isti etiam probarunt Deum (cf. v. 10), eum tentant, impietate et scelere eum provocaverunt et num eum tamquam £udicii Deum experti sunt? Minime ; incolumes abierunt, e periculis erepti sunt. Ita scil. de florenti statu gentilium, de imperio Persarum iudicant vilem suam ac pauperem theocratiae restitutae conditionem despicientes. Populus enim de Babylonia reversus, inquit S. Hier., cernens cunctas in circuitu nationes rebus omnibus abundare, se in penuria et fame ét miseria constitutum, scandalizabatur ad singula. Hisce impiis opponuntur ttmentes Deum ; ad quorum sermones Deus attendit eosque in libro suo recondit ; quid locuti sint timentes Deum ex oppositione ad impios et ex Dei responso facile colligitur; «quid locuti sint, non dicit, sed intelligitur quod in timore Dei contra blasphemos locuti sunt, hortando scil. se invicem, ne propter verba blasphemorum a iustitia desistant» (Alb.); vel saltem mitiore modo conquesti sunt ea ratione qua v. g. Ieremias: iustus quidem tu es Domine, si disputem tecum ; verumtamen iusta loquar ad te: quare via impiorum prosperatur? bene est omnibus qui praevaricantur et inique agunt (Ier. 12, 1)? Magna scil. erat et est piorum quandoque probatio ac tentatio, cur impii saepe floreant; eaque tentatio in V. T.'eo erat gravior, quía virtuti praemia et sceleri supplicia plerumque proponebantur temporalia ; quare frequens talis piorum expostulatio (cf. Iob 21, "1. Ps. 38, 712, 3 seq. Hab. 1, 3. 13 etc.), quam hoc quoque loco effundunt
3:16
v. 16 «tunc locuti sunt timentes Deum unusquisque cum proximo suo, et attendit Dominus et audivit et scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo timentibus Deum et cogitantibus nomen eius » ; —tunc i. e. cum impii blasphemas funderent voces et altos tollerent clamores, pii quoque gemebant et mutua inter se collocutione aerumnarum levamen quaerebant. Piorum suspiria et gemitus Deus attenta cura prosequitur, ea in librum memorialem refert, qui est coram ipso et in quo adscripti sunt timentes Deum et recogitantes nomen eius i. e. ii qui viva fide vim ac significationem nominis Dei i.e. eius immutabilitatem (cf. 3, 6), fidelitatem, maiestatem perpendunt et intimis animis percipiunt atque recondunt. Liber talis memorialis symbolum est divinae providentiae et omniscientiae, qua nihil eum latet, nihil oblivioni datur, nihil non summa cura et attentione disponitur. Ita psalmista quoque se consolatur dicens: nonne lacrimae meae positae sunt in libro tuo (Ps. 56, 9 hebr. et cf. Ps. 139, 16) et cum Daniel iudicium divinum exerceri cernit «libri aperti sunt» (Dan. "7, 10); praeterea moris erat res memoria dignas referre in tabellas publicas; unde munus mazkir in aula regum Iuda, unde bibliotheca librorum in aula regis Persarum (cf. Esd. 6, 1) et libri historiarum (Esd. 4, 15) et annales priorum temporum (Esth. 6, 1) et alia quae recenti tempore inventis et excavatis bibliothecis inscriptionum cuneiformium in usu posita esse iam inter omnes constat. LXX et Syrus habent : « haec locuti sunt timentes Deum » quasi antecedentia verba sint piorum. Et ita accipiunt S. Cyr. Theod. ; ctiam ex recentioribus aliqui (Hits. Schegg, Loch — et valde in eam opinionem propendet Calm.) in v. 44. 15 querelas piorum audiri censent. Sed id admitti nequit. Nam ita loqui non possunt timentes Deum, nisi dicere malueris eos per ironiam dici timentes Deum ac si propheta insinuare vellet : ecce qui ita impie conquerebantur, se esse cultores Iam pios Deus solatur dicens die iudicii sortem bonorum fore praeclaram :
3:17
v. 11 «et erunt mihi, ait Dominus exercituum, in die qua ego facio in peculium et parcam eis, sicut parcit vir filio suo servienti sibi » ; — dies quem facit Dominus, quem ipse parat, est dies iudicii divini, qui toties xav' &£oyt» dies Domini vocatur ; eo die declarabuntur et apparebunt tamquam peculium Dei, tamquam pars ea et hereditas quam Dominus sibi praeclaro amore elegit et in quam bonorum divinorum thesauros effundit (cf. Ex. 19, 5. 6. Deut. 7, 6; 26, 18). Benignitatis divinae participes erunt tremendo illo die titulo duplici : quod filii sint et quod Deo obedierint ac servierint (ftib.). Tunc denuo suis oculis cernent ct experientur, quale sit discrimen sortis inter bonos et. malos :
3:18
v. 18 «et convertemini et videbitis quid sit inter. iustum ct. impium et inter servientem Deo el non servientem et » ; — hebr. verte : atque iterum videbitis ; hisce in terris ex variis fortunis et casibus 1d cerni non semper potest; at nihilominus quandoque etiam hie discrimen illud Deus manifestum fecit, uti ex Israelitarum historia colligere poterant; quare dicit et iterum ; cf. Ex. 41, 1 : « utsciatis quanto miraculo dividat Dominus Aegvptios et Israel ». Verba haec ut sunt. consolatoria pro bonis, ità minacia pro malis, quos alloqui h. 1. Deum vel prophetam multi censent (cf. Rib. Sanct. Reinke). Quale autem diserimen futurum sit, magis declaratur in subsequentibus 4, 1-3. Est enim Deus ignis devorans atque consumens impios (Deut. 4, 24; 32, 22), piis vero est lux et splendor et omnis beatitatis abundantia. Unde dies Domini talis apparebit, qui sanctitatem Dei duplici hac ratione gloriose manifestabit ;
3:1
… with God (Gen. 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Ex. 3:2-4, 10 [Act. 7:31-35]; Iud. 2:1-4; 6:11-24; 13:6-23; Zach. 3:1-6). At the end of the "covenant code", Yahweh promises "his angel" who will lead Israel (Ex. 23:20-23), the "angel of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1). Sometimes the angel of Yahweh is clearly distinct from Yahweh (Ex. 33:2-6; Num. 22:31; II Sam. 24:16). After St. Irenaeus (Adv. …
Circumcision (From Lat. circumcisio, «cutting around»; Gr. περιτομή; Heb. Milāh)
… The chair on which the sandiqās sits during the act of circumcision is usually called the chair of the prophet Elijah, who is believed to assist invisibly at every circumcision and is popularly called "the Angel of the covenant" (cf. Mal. 3:1; 4:5).
… In Mal. 3:1, 23 ff. (Heb. 4:5 f.) it is said that E. will come to prepare the ways for the Messiah, preaching penance. …
… divine cause, not a minister and servant (according to the ideas of oriental despotism), not a viceroy (because God still reigns), but an Individual who is set over the exercise of divine justice and who, with reference to Ex. 34, 15 (cf. Is. 63, 8; Mal. 3, 1), represents God very closely.
A fitting preparation precedes his mission: the prophecies of Is. 40:3 and of Mal. 3:1, the intervention of the angel Gabriel, the prodigies of his sanctification in his mother's womb, of his birth and of the imposition of the name, the visit of the Mother of Jesus to …
… covenant, are of the tribe of J.; the new community formed by them is the elect Israel, legitimate heir of the divine promises, prologue and immediate preparation for the messianic kingdom (Hag. 2:6-9, 20-23; Zech. 6:12-15; 8:6-8, 20-23; Mal. 1:11; 3:1). This spiritual supremacy was tangibly manifested in the Temple, the only place where external worship of Yahweh was permitted. …
MALACHIAS. - Prophet, the last in the canon of the Old Testament, and therefore called the "seal of the prophets." He prophesied after the exile, during the Persian domination, whose peḥāḥ ("governor") he mentions, and after the restoration of worship in the Zerubbabel temple (Mal. 1:10; 2:4 ff.; 3:1, 10). It does not appear, however, whether this was before, during or after the return of Ezra-Nehemiah to Palestine. …
… earth: Zech. 9, 9 f. = Mt. 21, 5; b) a single perfect, immaculate sacrifice, offered to Jahweh throughout the world, will take the place of the Mosaic sacrifices: Mal. 1, 11; c) a precursor will immediately prepare the people for the work of the M. (Mal. 3, 1 ff.; cf. Is. 42, 6; 49, 8; Hag. 2, 9). Such a precursor, of whom Elijah (v.) is the type, "will turn the heart of the fathers toward the children" and vice versa (Mal. 4, 5 f. = Lk. 1, …
3:5
The prophetic writings abound in reproaches against recourse to magic (cf. Hos. 4:12; Is. 2:6; 3:2 f.; 57:3; Jer. 27:9; Mal. 3:5), and this aversion persists in the writings of the New Testament (Acts 8:9; 13:6, 10; 19:19). This shows how deeply rooted in the people was the tendency toward magic; in the Hellenistic …
… 14, 29; 26, 12-13; 16, 11, 14; 10, 18; 27, 19; 22, 24); very often, having no close relatives to defend her, she is at the mercy of the violent (cf. Job 22, 9; 34, 3, 21; Ps. 95, 6; Wis. 4, 10; Is. 1, 23; 10, 2; Jer. 7, 6; Ex. 22, 7, 25; Mal. 3, 5, etc.); she is consoled and helped only by the charitable man (cf. Job 29, 13; 31, 16; Jer. 22, 3; Zech. 7, 10; Is. 1, 17; etc.). …
3:8
All first fruits always belonged to the priests (Num. 18:13, 19; Deut. 18:4; Neh. 10:36[37]; Ez. 44:30). No offering is so attested and recommended as this one of the first fruits (I Sam. 2:29; II Chron. 31:5: Hezekiah restores it to honor; Neh. 10:36: it is resumed after the exile; Ez. 44:30; Mal. 3:8; Tob. 1:6; Prov. 3:9; Ezel. 7:34 [31]; 35:10; I Mach. 3:49). Later rabbis, basing themselves on Deut. 8:8, determined the offering of the first fruits in the seven common fruits of …
3:23
… when he "leaped" for joy. His mission resembles that of Elijah, whose spirit and power he was to possess (1 Kings 17-20), to reknit the bonds of domestic society and to lead the unbelieving back to sentiments of justice and piety, as was foretold in Mal. 3:23-24 (Lk. 1:17), so as to prepare a "perfect people" for the coming of the Messiah.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.