SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:7
¶ Desde los días de vuestros padres os habéis apartado de mis leyes, y nunca las guardasteis. Tornaos a mí, y yo me tornaré a vosotros, dijo el SEÑOR de los ejércitos. Y diréis: ¿En qué hemos de tornar?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Malachi 3:7
Verse 7. Gone away from mine ordinances] Never acting according to their spirit and design. Return unto me] There is still space to repent.
Wherein shall we return?] Their consciences were seared, and they knew not that they were sinners.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances , etc.] Here begins an enumeration of the sins of the Jews, which were the cause of their ruin; and here is first a general charge of apostasy from the statutes and ordinances of the law, which they made void by the traditions of the fathers; and therefore this word is used as referring to this evil, as well as to express their early, long, and continued departure from the ways of God; which as it was an aggravation of their sin, that they should have so long ago forsook the ordinances of God, and have not kept [them] , but transgressed them by observing the traditions of men, ( Matthew 15:3) so it is an instance of the patience and forbearance of God, that they were not as yet consumed; and of his grace and goodness, that he should address them as follows: Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts ; this message was carried to them by John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and by Christ himself, who both preached the doctrine of repentance to this people, ( Matthew 3:2 4:17). The Targum is, “return to my worship, and I will look in my word to do well unto you, saith the Lord of hosts;” and such who returned, and believed in Christ, and submitted to his ordinances, it was well with them. But ye said, Wherein shall we return ? what have we to turn from, or repent of? what evils have we done, or can be charged on us? what need have we of repentance or conversion, or of such an exhortation to it? do not we keep the law, and all the rituals of it? this is the true language of the Pharisees in Christ’s time, who, touching the righteousness of the law, were blameless in their own esteem, and were the ninety and nine just persons that needed not repentance, ( Luke 15:7).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-12 - The men of that generation turned away from God, they had not kept his ordinances. God gives them a gracious call. But they said, Wherei shall we return? God notices what returns our hearts make to the call of his word. It shows great perverseness in sin, when men make afflictions excuses for sin, which are sent to part between them an their sins. Here is an earnest exhortation to reform. God must be served in the first place; and the interest of our souls ought to be preferred before that of our bodies. Let them trust God to provide for their comfort. God has blessings ready for us, but through the weaknes of our faith and the narrowness of our desires, we have not room to receive them. He who makes trial will find nothing is lost by honourin the Lord with his substance.
Original Hebrew
למימי 3117 אבתיכם 1 סרתם 5493 מחקי 2706 ולא 3808 שׁמרתם 8104 שׁובו 7725 אלי 413 ואשׁובה 7725 אליכם 413 אמר 559 יהוה 3068 צבאות 6635 ואמרתם 559 במה 4100 נשׁוב׃ 7725
