Malachi 2:8

“But ye are departed out of the way, etc.] Of truth and righteousness, of life and peace, of eternal salvation and happiness, pointed to by Christ and his forerunner, and by his apostles and ministers that followed him, and which was clearly showed in the preaching of the Gospel: this was the character of the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, in Christ’s time, to which the prophet seems to have respect; who not only failed in their observance of legal sacrifices, complained of in the former chapter (<390101>Malachi 1:1-14), but left that way of atonement and salvation they directed to, and led others out of the way with them: ye have caused many to stumble at the law; at the doctrine of…”

“out of the way--that is, from the covenant. caused many to stumble--By scandalous example, the worse inasmuch as the people look up to you as ministers of religion (Sa1 2:17; Jer 18:15; Mat 18:6; Luk 17:1). at the law--that is, in respect to the observances of the law. corrupted . . . covenant--made it of none effect, by not fulfilling its conditions, and so forfeiting its promises (Zac 11:10; Neh 13:29).”

“But ye - o are departed out of the way “of knowledge, truth, equity, fear of God, which I appointed to Aaron and the Levites.” “Ye have caused many to stumble at the law.” He does not simply say, “in the law,” but “at” it. The law was what they stumbled at. They did not only misunderstand the law, through the false teaching of the priests, as though it allowed things which in truth were sins (although this too); itself was their source of stumbling. As Jesus Himself was “a rock of offence” whereon they stumbled, because through His divine holiness He was not what they expected Him to be, so contrariwise the law became an offence to them through the unholiness and inconsistency of the lives…”

“But ye - Priests. Stumble at the law - By your false expositions of it. Have corrupted - You have violated it, have contradicted the great intentions of it, and done what in you lay, to defeat them. Malachi 2:9”

“ye are: Psa 18:21, Psa 119:102; Isa 30:11, Isa 59:13; Jer 17:5, Jer 17:13; Eze 44:10; Dan 9:5, Dan 9:6; Heb 3:12 ye have caused: Mal 2:9; Sa1 2:17, Sa1 2:24, Sa1 2:30; Isa 9:16; Jer 18:15, Jer 23:11-15; Mat 15:2-5; Luk 11:45, Luk 11:46; Rom 2:19-24, Rom 14:21 stumble at: or, fall in ye have corrupted: Mal 2:5, Mal 2:10; Lev 21:15; Neh 13:29 Malachi 2:9”

“Mal 2:8. "But ye have departed from the way, have made many to stumble at the law, have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. Mal 2:9. Thus I also make you despised and base with all the people, inasmuch as ye do not keep my ways, and respect person in the law." הדּרך is the way depicted in Mal 2:6 and Mal 2:7, in which the priests ought to have walked. הכשׁלתּם בּתּורה does not mean "ye have caused to fall by instruction" (Koehler); for, in the first place, hattōrâh (with the article) is not the instruction or teaching of the priests, but the law of God; and secondly, ב with כּשׁל denotes the object against which a man stumbles and which causes him to fall. Hitzig has…”