MALACHI CHAPTER 1
God by Malachi complaineth of Israel's ingratitude, Zechariah 1:1-5 and of the profane disrespect shown to God's worship, Zechariah 1:6-13 . The curse of corrupt offerings; Zechariah 1:14 .
The burden: see Malachi 9:1 Nahum 1:1 . Usually it imports sad threats against those concerned in it, though sometimes it may be no more than the message of God.
Of the word of the Lord: the authority was Divine on which this prophet spake.
Malachi: my messenger, (saith the Lord,) so the Hebrew sounds. My angel, as some, though they err who take him to be an angel conversing with Jews in the form of a man; but angel, taken in the grammatical sense, i.e. messenger, he was, and God's messenger, the last of the prophets sent to Israel before the great Prophet Messiah came. That he was Mordecai, or Ezra, as some conjecture without good ground, or who he was, of what tribe or family, the Scripture gives us no account, and we make no guess. His prophecy is of Divine authority, and so cited by three of the four evangelists, Matthew 11:10 Mark 1:2 Luke 1:16; and by St. Paul, Romans 9:13 .