Malachi 1:4

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is an oracle, the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi: ²"I have loved you," says the LORD. But you ask, "How have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved, ³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals." ⁴Though Edom may say, "We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins," this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.⁵You will see this with your own eyes, and you yourselves will say, 'The LORD is great-even beyond the borders of Israel.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

but: Isaiah 9:9, Isaiah 9:10, James 4:13-16

They shall build: Job 9:4, Job 12:14, Job 34:29, Psalms 127:1, Proverbs 21:30, Isaiah 10:4, Isaiah 10:15, Isaiah 10:16, Lamentations 3:37, Matthew 12:30

The border: Jeremiah 31:17, Ezekiel 11:10, Amos 6:2

The people: Malachi 1:3, Psalms 137:7, Isaiah 11:14, Isaiah 34:5, Isaiah 34:10, Isaiah 63:1-6, Lamentations 4:21, Lamentations 4:22, Ezekiel 25:14, Ezekiel 35:9

Reciprocal: Joshua 6:26 - Cursed Judges 6:6 - impoverished Isaiah 34:11 - stretch Isaiah 64:9 - remember Jeremiah 22:14 - I will Jeremiah 49:7 - Edom Jeremiah 49:10 - I have made Jeremiah 49:13 - a desolation Jeremiah 49:20 - make Lamentations 2:2 - he hath thrown Ezekiel 25:13 - I will also Ezekiel 26:14 - be built Ezekiel 32:29 - Edom Ezekiel 35:4 - lay Hosea 2:9 - will I Joel 3:19 - Edom Amos 1:11 - Edom Amos 9:12 - Edom Obadiah 1:1 - concerning Obadiah 1:3 - pride Obadiah 1:10 - and Obadiah 1:19 - the south Habakkuk 2:13 - is it Malachi 3:18 - shall

Cross-References

Genesis 1:10
God called the dry land "earth," and the gathering of waters He called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:12
The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:18
to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:25
God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:31
And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.

Ecclesiastes 2:13
And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

Ecclesiastes 11:7
Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished,.... Or the Idumeans, as the Targum; the posterity of Esau, who acknowledge themselves greatly reduced by the desolations made in their country, cities, towns, and houses, being plundered of all their valuable things. Kimchi interprets it, if the congregation of Edom should say, though we are become poor and low, and our land is laid waste:

but we will return; being now become rich, as the Targum adds; that is, as Jarchi explains it, with the spoils of Jerusalem:

and build the desolate places: as Israel did, as Kimchi observes, when they returned from their captivity; and so the Edomites hoped to do the same:

thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; they attempted to build again their cities and towns, but could not succeed, God was against them:

and they shall call them; or, "they shall be called" u; this shall be the name they, shall go by among men, by way of proverb and reproach:

The border of wickedness; a wicked kingdom and nation, from one end to the other; this shall be said of them, as the reason of their utter and perpetual desolation:

and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever; not for seventy years only, as against the Jews, Zechariah 1:12, but forever; and these are now no more a people; they are utterly extinct; their name and nation are lost; there is not the least appearance of them; when the Jews, though they are scattered about in the world, yet they are still a people, and distinct from all others.

u וקראו להם "et vocabuntur", V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Grotius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whereas Edom saith - ^o.

We are impoverished - ^o, ידשׁשׁ.), or, more probably, “we were crushed.” Either gives an adequate sense. Human self-confidence will admit anything, as to the past; nay, will even exaggerate past evil to itself, “Crush us how they may, we will arise and repair our losses.” So Ephraim said of old Isaiah 9:9-10, “in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn-stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” It is the one language of what calls itself, “indomitable;” in other words, “untameable,” conquerors or every other gambler; “we will repair our losses.” All is again staked and lost.

“They shall call them the border of wickedness.” Formerly, it had its own proper name, “the border of Edom,” as other countries Exodus 10:14, Exodus 10:19, “all the border of Egypt Deuteronomy 2:18, the border of Moab 1Sa 11:3, 1 Samuel 11:7; 1 Samuel 27:1; 1 Chronicles 21:12, the whole border of Israel 2 Chronicles 11:13, the border of Israel Judges 11:22, the whole border of the Amorite.” Henceforth, it should be known no more by its own name; but as “the border of wickedness,” where wickedness formerly dwelt, and, hence, the judgment of God and desolation from Him came upon it, “an accursed land.” In a similar manner, Jeremiah says somewhat of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 22:8-9. Compare Deuteronomy 29:23-28.) “Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say, every man to his neighbor, Wherfore hath the Lord done this unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.” Only Israel would retain its name, as it has; Edom should be blotted out wholly and forever.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Malachi 1:4. They shall build, but I will throw down — We have already seen enough of the wickedness of the Edomites to justify the utmost severity of Divine justice against them. The pulling down predicted here was by Judas Maccabeus; see 1Mac 5:65; and by John Hyrcanus; see Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 9. s. 1.

They shall call them, The border of wickedness — A wicked land. Among this people scarcely any trace of good could ever be noted.