Malachi 3:11

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) For your sakes.—The same word as in Malachi 2:3 : here in a good sense, there in a bad.

The devourer—i.e., the locust, &c.

Rebuke.—Better, corrupt. The same word is used as in Malachi 2:3, but in a different construction. (With this verse comp. Haggai 1:6-11.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:7-12 The men of that generation turned away from God, they had not kept his ordinances. God gives them a gracious call. But they said, Wherein shall we return? God notices what returns our hearts make to the calls of his word. It shows great perverseness in sin, when men make afflictions excuses for sin, which are sent to part between them and 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 weakness 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 honouring the Lord with his substance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will rebuke the devourer - , the locust, caterpillar, or any like scourge of God. It might be, that when the rain watered the fields, the locust or caterpillar etc. might destroy the grain, so that the labors of man should perish; wherefore he adds, "I will rebuke the devourer. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time," holding out a fair promise, but cut off by the frost-wind or the hail; the blossoms or the unripe fruit strewing the earth, as a token of God's displeasure.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. I will rebuke—(See on [1195]Mal 2:3). I will no longer "rebuke (English Version, 'corrupt') the seed," but will rebuke every agency that could hurt it (Am 4:9).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will rebuke; lay a restraint upon, or prohibit, and the prohibition shall be effectual; if God so check, no creature is or dares be deaf to it; such a check not only quiets the unruly sea, but can dry it up.

The devourer; all kinds of devourers, the locust, the canker-worm, caterpillar, &c., pests of those countries very often; though they are in mighty armies and incredible multitudes, yet a rebuke from God will check them all at once as if they were but one.

For your sakes; not for merit in you, but for good to you.

He shall not destroy; consume and eat it, as those vermin always did wherever they came.

The fruits of your ground; corn sown by your hand, and grass springing up of its own nature, both which these locusts devour wheresoever they come, and leave penury or famine behind them.

Neither shall your vine cast her fruit; no blasting or burning winds shall make them drop, no frosts or hails shall destroy your vines. This was once the plague of Egypt, Psalm 105:33-36.

Before the time; your vines shall carry their fruit till they are fully ripe.

In the field; where they had large vineyards and oliveyards planted, and God will make them prosper if this people will return to him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,.... Or "eater" (m); the locust or caterpillar, or any such devouring creature, that eats up the herbage, corn, and fruits of trees; every such creature is under the restraint of Providence; and by a nod, a rebuke, they are easily prevented doing the mischief they otherwise would; these are the Lord's great army, which he can send and call off as he pleases, Joel 1:4,

and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; as he has done, by eating all green things, as the locust, caterpillar, and canker worm do, grass, corn, and trees:

neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field; which some understand of the devourer or locust, that that should not cause the vine to be abortive, or cast its fruit before its time, or bereave it of it; but it seems best to interpret it of the vine itself not casting its fruit, as an untimely birth, by blighting and blasting winds:

saith the Lord of hosts; who holds the winds in his fists, and will not suffer them when he pleases, any more than the locusts, to hurt the trees of the earth, Revelation 7:1.

(m) "comedentem", Drusius, Cocceius; "eum qui comedit", Burkius.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will rebuke the {l} devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

(l) Meaning the caterpillar, and whatever destroys corn and fruits.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. the devourer] lit. eater, i.e. any insect, especially the locust, that would devour the fruits of the earth. The same verb is used of the ravages of four insects, “probably different kinds of locusts, or locusts in different stages of growth” (R.V. marginal note), Joel 1:4.

The threatened curse was the “rebuke” (ch. Malachi 2:3, note) of the seed: the promised blessing is the “rebuke” of the devourer.

cast her fruit before the time] lit. miscarry. Comp. “a miscarrying womb”, Hosea 9:14; “miscarrying ground”, 2 Kings 2:19; 2 Kings 2:21. So Pliny speaks of “arborum abortus”. (Pusey after Gesen.) In Revelation 6:13 we read: “the stars of the heaven fall unto the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs, when she is shaken of a great wind.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - The devourer. The locust (see Introduction to Joel, § 1.). God would not only give a fruitful season, so that the crops sprang up well, but would guard them from everything that could injure them before they were gathered in. Septuagint, διαστελῶ ὑμῖν εἰς βρῶσιν, which perhaps means, as Schleusner thinks, "I will give a charge unto consumption for your good," though Jerome renders, "dividam vobis cibos." Malachi 3:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Malachi 3:10. "Bring ye all the tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be consumption in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I do not open you the sluices of heaven, and pour you out a blessing to superabundance. Malachi 3:11. And I will rebuke the devourer for you, that he may not destroy the fruit of your ground; and your vine will not miscarry in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. Malachi 3:12. And all nations will call you blessed; for ye will be a land of good pleasure, saith Jehovah of hosts." In Malachi 3:10 the emphasis lies upon kol: the whole of the tithe they are to bring, and not merely a portion of it, and so defraud the Lord; for the tithe was paid to Jehovah for His servants the Levites (Numbers 18:24). It was delivered, at least after the times of the later kings, at the sanctuary, where store-chambers were built for the purpose (cf. 2 Chronicles 31:11.; Nehemiah 10:38-39; Nehemiah 12:44; Nehemiah 13:12). Tereph signifies here food, or consumption, as in Proverbs 31:15; Psalm 111:5. בּזאת, through this, i.e., through their giving to God what they are under obligation to give Him, they are to prove God, whether in His attitude towards them He is no longer the holy and righteous God (Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3:6). Then will they also learn, that He causes the promised blessing to flow in the richest abundance to those who keep His commandments. אם לא is not a particle of asseveration or oath (Koehler), but an indirect question: whether not. Opening the sluices of heaven is a figure, denoting the most copious supply of blessing, so that it flows down from heaven like a pouring rain (as in 2 Kings 7:2). עד בּלי די, till there is no more need, i.e., in superabundance. This thought is individualized in Malachi 3:11. Everything that could injure the fruits of the land God will take away. גּער, to rebuke practically, i.e., to avert the intention. אכל, the devourer, is here the locust, so called from its insatiable voracity. Shikkēl, to miscarry, is affirmed of the vine, when it has set a good quantity of grapes, which perish and drop off before they ripen. In consequence of this blessing, all nations will call Israel blessed (Malachi 3:12), because its land will be an object of pleasure to every one (cf. Zechariah 7:14; Zechariah 8:13, Zechariah 8:23).