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Eternal One: For behold the day of burning will come, smoldering like a furnace. The arrogant and the evil will be set ablaze like the worthless chaff of grain. Neither roots nor branch will remain. I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, promise this. But for you, the ones who tremble at the sound of My name, a warm sun of righteousness will come forth with healing in its rays, and you will go out, springing from the stalls like calves in open pasture. Then you will trample the criminal; your feet will make them ash on the day I am preparing. I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, promise this.

Remember the instructions which Moses, My faithful servant, received from Me at Mount Horeb and gave to all Israel. Remember its statutes and judgments.

Keep watch. I am sending Elijah the prophet to you before the arrival of the great and terrible day of the Eternal One, and he will return parents’ hearts to their children and children’s hearts to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land of promise with a curse of annihilation.

These verses simultaneously display retrospective and prospective dimensions of Malachi’s conversation with the people, especially the temple priests, of Jerusalem. Malachi calls his contemporaries to remember the life and message of Moses and future generations to look forward to the life and message of the Elijah who is to come. As Ezra in the fifth century b.c. is like Elijah, reflecting these expectations, so John the Baptist is the messenger par excellence 400 years later when he prepares the world for Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Anointed One.

Judgment and Covenant Renewal

[a]“Surely the day is coming;(A) it will burn like a furnace.(B) All the arrogant(C) and every evildoer will be stubble,(D) and the day that is coming will set them on fire,(E)” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch(F) will be left to them. But for you who revere my name,(G) the sun of righteousness(H) will rise with healing(I) in its rays. And you will go out and frolic(J) like well-fed calves. Then you will trample(K) on the wicked; they will be ashes(L) under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

“Remember the law(M) of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb(N) for all Israel.(O)

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah(P) to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.(Q) He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children,(R) and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike(S) the land with total destruction.”(T)

Footnotes

  1. Malachi 4:1 In Hebrew texts 4:1-6 is numbered 3:19-24.

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.