Malachi 2:1-2

Malachi announced an admonition to the priests from the Lord. If they did not pay attention to His rebuke and sincerely desire to honor Yahweh’s name, the Lord would curse them (cf. Deuteronomy 27:15-26; Deuteronomy 28:15-68). He would cut off their blessings; troubles would plague their lives. Blessing was their business, and by cursing their blessings the Lord would render their pronounced blessings vain. This curtailment of blessing may also include their income from the people as well as spiritual blessings. In fact, He had already begun to do so.

"The inevitable result of covenant unfaithfulness was the imposition of the curses that were always spelled out in covenant texts (cf. Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 27:11-26; Deuteronomy 28:15-57)." [Note: Merrill, p. 405.]

"No single prophetic book contains all twenty-seven types of curses or all ten types of restoration blessings. The shorter books normally contain few of either. Malachi, on the other hand, contains a fairly high proportion of both types relative to its length, confirming what readers of the book have long noticed: the Book of Malachi is closely concerned with fidelity to the covenant and the consequences (thus curses and blessings) of keeping or breaking the law of Moses." [Note: Stuart, pp. 1260-61.]

Notice the importance of the priests taking to heart what the Lord was saying, repeated twice in Malachi 2:2 for emphasis.

"The word ’heart’ (leb/lebab) denotes in Hebrew what may be called the command center of a person’s life, where knowledge is collected and considered and where decisions and plans are made that determine the direction of one’s life. In view of the 814 occurrences of the word in the Old Testament in reference to the human ’heart’ (’the commonest of all anthropological terms’ [Note: Footnote 173: H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, p. 40.] ) and the common usage of ’heart’ in English of emotions, it is important to differentiate the Hebrew meaning from the English and so to ’guard against the false impression that biblical man is determined more by feeling than by reason.’ [Note: Footnote 174: Ibid., p. 47.] " [Note: Clendenen, p. 288.]