D it. "Behold
ii in the second 1. The Lord when II will be like a BD which burns OOt all the corrupt
I with the gold and ril xiii. 9), and like the lye or alkaline salt by which clothes are
I is no long to the fire, but represented as a smelter. Al Iter purifies £old and silver from the dross adh will the Lord refine the sons of Levi, by whom the pri principally intended. The ydshabh (sit)
Tbe participles' m'tsdriph and m'tahir describe the capa as a smelter au.l pnriftsj rence of adultery may be inferred from the condemnation of the maniagef with heathen wives in ch. ii. 10 16. On fa ampere Lev. xix. 12. The expression to press the wages of the labourer is unu-ual, since the only other passage in which %"V is construed with a neuter object is Mic. ii. 2, and in every other case it is applied to persons: for "ttjb py* com-
<>f the tithe th< v are to bring, ai 1 not n - portion of it, and Frand the Lord; f<>r the tithe wm paid to Jehovah for Hi tnts the Lev Num. xviii. 24). It was de- is admonition to the ungodly is explained in ch. iv. 1 • a picture of the - tion which will be effected by healing, in its w i,,f the Mm axe the rays by which it is surrounded, and not a figure denoting swiftm
, mto which they had withdrawn during the night of and where they had krj»t themselves concealed, and sion, but they will also acquire power over the ungodly. They will tread down tin* wicked, who will then have become ashes, by the lire of the jn Igment (cf. Isa. xxvi. 5, 6).
' ihfs} Ver. 5. Behold, I Elijah the prophet before the day of Jehovah comes,
\ r. 8. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and (he heart of the sons to their fathers,
1 The I. XX. have put ver. 4 at the end of the book, not to call attendance, but probably for the very same reason for which t:.at the close of our book, that in the p'pftS *'•«• in the books of Isaiah, the twelve prophets, the Lamentations, and Ecclesiasus, the I it one of these books was to be repeated when they a sound. The transposition is unsuitable, inasmuch as the promise in vers. 5 and G does not fit on to the idea expressed in vers. 2 and 3, but only to that in ver. 4. According to the Masora, the T in DDT should be written as litera majusc, although in many codd. it has the usual form; and this is not to show the great importance of the verse, since these Masoretic indications have generally a different meaning, but in all probability it is rimply to indicate that this is the only passage in the book of the twelve prophets in which the word is pronounced rpT (cf- fatt m Hos- X1L 6' xiv. 8), whereas in the other books, with the exception of Job xviii. 17, this is the only pronunciation that is met with.
IP. IV.
'i over the nation of God in the mind and spirit of David; the Elijah t can only be ■ prophet with the spirit
David I had been promised the eternal possession of the throne. The prophetic calling, on the other hand, was not hereditary in the prophet's house, but rested solely upon divine choice and endowment with the Spirit of God; and consequently by Elijah m to understand a lineal descendant of the Tishbite, but simply a prophet in whom the spirit and power of Elijah are revived, as Ephr. Syr., Luther, Calvin, and most of the V nt commentators have maintained. But tl; >n why this prophet Elijah is named is to be sought for, not merely in the fact that Elijah was called to his work as a reformer in Israel at a period which was destitute of faith and of the true fear of Jehovah, and which immediately preceded a terrible judgment (Koehler), but also and more especially in the power and energy with which Elijah rose up to lead back the ungodly generation of his owm time to the God of the fathers. The one does not exclude but rather includes the other. The greater the apostasy, the greater must be the power which is to stem it, so as to rescue those who suffer winnowing shovel to winnow His fl or, and gather the wheat into II i granary, but who would burn up the chaff with unquenchable I Christ Elin If also not only assured the pie (in Matt. xi. 10 sqq., Luke vii. 27 »qq.) that.John was the nit- r announced by Malachi and the Elijah who was
Matt. xvii. 11 sqq.; Mark ix. 11 sqq.) tl ah, who was to come first and restore all things, had already come, though the people had not acknowhim. An.1 iin i. 21 is not at variance with these
John the Baptist to ask whether he was Elias, and he answered, ■' I.mi not," he simply gave a negative reply to their question, interpreted in the sense of a personal reappearance of Elijah the Tishbite, which was the sense in which they meant it, but he also declared himself to be the promised forerunner of the I by applying to Ids own labours the prophecy contained in Isa. \1.
And as the prophet Elijah predicted by Malachi appeared in John the Baptist, so did the Lord come to His temple in the appearing of Jesus Christ. The opinion, which was very widely spread among the fathers and Catholic commentators, and which has also been adopted by many of the more modern