[2] Torrey (_Ency. Bib._ c. 2908) holds that the reference here is purely figurative; "Judah has dealt falsely with the wife of his youth, the covenant religion, and is wedding a strange cult." But he assigns the book to the 4th century. [3] This closing prophecy may possibly be a later addition (so Marti) rounding off the prophetic canon by reference to the two great names of Moses and Elijah, and their characteristic activities. In this case, "Elijah" will represent an early interpretation (cf. Ecclus. xlviii. 10) of the "messenger," originally conceived as a purely ideal figure. The only other passage in the book whose originality is not generally accepted is that referring to mixed marriages (ii. 11, 12). [4] It is the Deuteronomic law that is most familiar to him, as appears from his use of the name Horeb for the mountain of the law, and the Deuteronomic phrase "statutes and judgments" (iv. 4), from his language as to tithes and offerings (iii. 8, 10; cf. Deut. xii. 11; xxvi. 12), and especially from his conception of the priesthood as resting on a covenant with Levi (ii. 4 seq.). Malachi indeed assumes that the "whole tithe"--the Deuteronomic phrase for the tithe in which the Levites shared--is not stored in each township, but brought into the treasury at the Temple. But this was a modification of the Deuteronomic law naturally called for under the circumstances of the return from Babylon, and Neh. x. and xiii. produce the impression that it was not introduced for the first time by Ezra and Nehemiah, though the collection of the tithe was enforced by them. See further, W.R.S. in _O.T.J.C._ ii. 425-427. [5] Cf. Stade's reconstruction, _G.V.I._ ii. 128-138. [6] Welch in _D.B._ iii. 220. [7] This remarkable utterance is sometimes (as by W.R.S.) interpreted of the worship of Jews scattered in the Dispersion: reasons for the above view are given by Driver. [8] In ii. 16 the Targum renders "If thou hatest her put her away." It is characteristic of later Judaism that an arbitrary exegesis transformed the above anticipation of the doctrine of marriage laid down in the gospel into an express sanction of the right of the husband to put away his wife at will. [9] "The permanence of Judaism depended on the religious separateness of the Jews" (Ryle, _Ezra and Nehemiah_, p. 143). [10] Matt. xvii. 3, 4, 10-13; xxvii. 47, 49; John i. 21, 25.