2:5 My covenant. The covenant with “Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,” was a “covenant of peace,” the “covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (Numbers 25:11-13), but his descendants had “corrupted the covenant of Levi” (Malachi 2:8). Hypocrisy and rebellion on the part of one who is a “messenger of the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 2:7) may still result in being made “contemptible and base before all the people” (Malachi 2:9).