Malachias 2:13
And this again have you done, you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and bellowing, so that I have no more a regard to sacrifice, neither do I accept any atonement at your hands.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et hoc rursum fecistis : operiebatis lacrimis altare Domini, fletu et mugitu, ita ut non respiciam ultra ad sacrificium, nec accipiam placabile quid de manu vestra.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ταῦτα ἃ ἐμίσουν, ἐποιεῖτε· ἐκαλύπτετε δάκρυσιν τὸ θυσιαστήριον Κυρίου καὶ κλαυθμῷ καὶ στεναγμῷ ἐκ κόπων. ἔτι ἄξιον ἐπιβλέψαι εἰς θυσίαν ἢ λαβεῖν δεκτὸν ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְזֹאת֙ שֵׁנִ֣ית תַּֽעֲשׂ֔וּ כַּסּ֤וֹת דִּמְעָה֙ אֶת מִזְבַּ֣ח יְהוָ֔ה בְּכִ֖י וַֽאֲנָקָ֑ה מֵאֵ֣ין ע֗וֹד פְּנוֹת֙ אֶל הַמִּנְחָ֔ה וְלָקַ֥חַת רָצ֖וֹן מִיֶּדְכֶֽם
Haydock's commentary
With tears; viz., by occasion of your wives, whom you have put away, and who came to weep and lament before the altar. (Challoner)
Though divorces were tolerated, (Matthew xix. 6.) the more virtuous did not approve of them, particularly when a wife was put away who had been married in youth. See ver. 10. Perhaps this corruption had crept in, like others, (Calmet) owing to the people's commerce with strangers. (Diod. in Photius.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew XXVI. 67, 68
Touching whom also the prophet saith, “Ye covered my altar with tears.” Christ is not willing to be fed by covetousness, He accepts not this food. Why dost thou insult thy Lord, offering Him unclean things? It is better to leave men to pine with hunger, than to feed them from these sources. That was the conduct of a cruel man, this of one both cruel and insolent. It is better to give nothing, than to give the things of one set of persons to others. For tell me, if you saw any two persons, one naked, one having a garment, and then having stripped the one that had the garment, thou wert to clothe the naked, wouldest thou not have committed an injustice? It is surely plain to every one. …
St Gregory Nazianzen In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office
61. How can it be right to pass by Malachi, who at one time brings bitter charges against the priests, and reproaches them with despising the name of the Lord, and explains wherein they did this, by offering polluted bread upon the altar, and meat which is not firstfruits, which they would not have offered to one of their governors, or, if they had offered it, they would have been dishonoured; yet offering these in fulfilment of a vow to the King of the universe, to wit, the lame and the sick, and the deformed, which are utterly profane and loathsome. Again he reminds them of the covenant of God, a covenant of life and peace, with the sons of Levi, and that they should serve Him in fear, and stand in awe of the manifestation of His Name. …