Malachichapter 4
6 verses · Malachi · 460 to 430 BC · The Twelve
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
Introduction
Malachi, The Twelve, Malachi Overview.
This chapter closes Malachi's last argument and ends the Old Testament in the order of the Christian Bible. In the Hebrew Bible it is the end of chapter 3, and its closing charge seals the collection of the twelve prophets. Malachi speaks to people who have just asked whether serving God is worth it. Listen for two pictures drawn from the sky and the farmyard, one for each kind of person. Then listen for the two names the chapter leaves with the reader, one from the past and one still to come. Read it as the hinge between the Testaments.
Context
- Who
- The last generation to hear a canonical prophet for roughly four hundred years
- What
- The end of the sixth disputation, the day of the LORD for the arrogant and for those who fear Him, and a closing charge to remember Moses and wait for Elijah.
- Where
- Jerusalem and Judah under Persian rule, with Horeb, the mountain of the law, named as the place the statutes were given.
- When
- The Persian period, most likely about 460 to 430 BC, the last prophetic word to Israel before the New Testament.
- Why
- To set before Judah the two ends of the day of the LORD and to leave them holding the law while they waited for the promised prophet.
Historical context
The chapter is built on one contrast. The same day burns like an oven for the proud and rises like the sun with healing in its wings for those who fear God's name. Bread ovens in that world were clay domes heated until the walls glowed; stubble thrown in was gone in seconds.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
"The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings" uses a winged sun image that was widespread across the ancient Near East as a symbol of a god or a king's protective power, carved on Persian, Egyptian, and Assyrian monuments alike. The picture would have been instantly legible.
Then two names close the Old Testament. Remember the law of Moses, the servant of God, given at Horeb, that is, hold to what you already have. And: behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Elijah had not died but was taken up, which is part of why his return was expected. Jewish tradition kept that expectation alive; a place is still set for Elijah at Passover. The Gospels report that people asked John the Baptist whether he was Elijah, and Jesus said John came in the spirit and power of Elijah.
The very last sentence of the Old Testament is about families: 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. After all the oracles about nations and temples, it ends at the kitchen table.
Then silence. No canonical prophet speaks again until a priest named Zacharias is struck dumb in the temple, and the angel who does it quotes this chapter.
Significance
To that generation this was both an ending and a holding instruction. The prophets were finishing; the Law and the memory of Elijah were what they had to live on.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The promise that carried them was that the silence was not abandonment. Someone was coming ahead of the day, and the sunrise was for people who feared God's name, who would go out and grow up like calves let out of the stall, which is exactly what a calf does on the first day of spring.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
How it is read
The Hebrew Bible has no fourth chapter of Malachi. The six verses the English Bible prints as chapter 4 are the close of the Hebrew third chapter, verses 19 to 24, and the corpus numbers them so. Each ref below keeps the Hebrew number, with the English verse named beside it.
Rashi is the one commentator on these verses whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
On English verse 1, Rashi reads the day as the sun and reports the Sages: "there will be no Gehinnom in the future, but the Holy One, blessed be He, will take the sun out of its case; the wicked will be punished thereby and the righteous will be healed thereby". The one sun both burns and heals, and he ties the note to the next verse (Rashi on Malachi 3:19:1). One word of English verse 2 he glosses as growing fat, from Jeremiah 50:11, and one word of English verse 3 as pressing, from Ezekiel 23:8 (Rashi on Malachi 3:20:1 and 3:21:1).
The book ends on the turning of hearts, English verse 6. Rashi reads the fathers' hearts as turned "back to the Holy One, blessed be He" (Rashi on Malachi 3:24:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on these verses without an English text. Ibn Ezra on Malachi 3:22:1, English verse 4, is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Malbim on Malachi 3:23:1, English verse 5, is marked linked because the licence Sefaria reports for its translation, CC-BY-NC, does not permit the text to be kept. Both stand cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries seven rabbinic locators on these six verses and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On Hebrew verse 19, English verse 1, it holds Aggadat Bereshit 20:1 and Aggadat Bereshit 20:2. On Hebrew verse 20, English verse 2, it holds Avodah Zarah 4a:2. On Hebrew verse 21, English verse 3, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 79:7. On Hebrew verse 22, English verse 4, it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 48:1. On Hebrew verse 23, English verse 5, it holds Aggadat Bereshit 77:4. On Hebrew verse 24, English verse 6, it holds Midrash Mishlei 15:6. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Malachi 3:19:1 to 3:24:1 (English 4:1 to 4:6), The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Malachi 3:22:1 (English 4:4), cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Malachi 3:23:1 (English 4:5), Trans. Betzalel Avraham Feinstein, 2026, reported CC-BY-NC and cited by ref because that licence does not permit the text to be kept; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/malachi/3.json, the 7 Talmud and Midrash locators on Hebrew verses 19 to 24; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The day burning like an oven, and the Sun of Righteousness
burning like a furnace: The day of the LORD comes "burning like a furnace," and "all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble". The end is total: "Not a root or branch will be left to them". The same day has two edges, for verse 2 answers the fire with healing.
Malachi 4:1
“For, behold, the day cometh, which shall burn as an oven - He had declared the great severance of the God-fearing and the God-blaspheming, those who served and those who did not serve God; the righteous and the wicked; now he declares the way and time of the severance, the Day of Judgment.”
the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings: For "you who fear My name," the day that burns the arrogant brings "the sun of righteousness" rising "with healing in its wings". These are the reverent of 3:16, and they "go out and leap like calves from the stall". The church has long read the verse of Christ.
Malachi 4:2
“You that fear my name - The persons mentioned in the sixteenth verse of the preceding chapter, ye that look for redemption through the Messiah. The Sun of righteousness - The Lord Jesus, the promised Messiah; the Hope of Israel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 4:2
“And this may well be an emblem of the day of judgment. The sun of righteousness - Christ, who is fitly compared to the sun, being the fountain of light, and vital heat to his church. And of mercy and benignity; for the Hebrew word imports both.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 4:2
“Eph 5:14; and in His second coming, 2Pe 1:19. The Church is the moon reflecting His light (Re 12:1). The righteous shall by His righteousness "shine as the Sun in the kingdom of the Father" (Mt 13:43). ye shall go forth--from the straits in which you were, as it were, held captive.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
you will trample the wicked: The calves of verse 2 become the feet of verse 3: "you will trample the wicked". The reversal answers the complaint of 3:14 that serving God brought no gain. Gill and Clarke set beside it the promise to Joshua's Israel that their enemies would be put under their feet.
Malachi 4:3
“By the accomplishment of these prophecies in the ruin of the Jewish nation, we should have our faith confirmed in the assurances Christ has given us concerning the dissolution of all things. Surely I come quickly; so says Christ, the Lord of hosts, to whom all power in heaven and earth is committed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Malachi 4:3
“Their prosperity and the adversity of the godly shall soon be reversed. Yea, the righteous shall be the army attending Christ in His final destruction of the ungodly (2Sa 22:43; 19:14, 15). ashes--after having been burnt with the fire of judgment (Mal 4:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Remember the law; Elijah before the great and terrible day
Before naming Elijah the book turns back to Moses, the two figures the Gospels set beside Jesus at the transfiguration. The charge is "Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb".
Malachi 4:4
“Remember - Now take leave of prophecy, for you shall have no more 'till the great prophet,' till Shiloh come, but attend ye diligently to the law of Moses. For all Israel - So long as they should be a people and church. Statutes and judgments - Be not partial; statutes and judgments, that is, the whole law must you attend to, and remember it as God requires.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 4:4
“Remember ye the law of Moses - Where all these things are predicted. The Septuagint, Arabic, and Coptic, place this verse the last.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Malachi 4:4
“Just as "Moses" and "Elias" are here connected with the Lord's coming, so at the transfiguration they converse with Him, implying that the law and prophets which had prepared His way were now fulfilled in Him. statutes . . . judgments--ceremonial "statutes": "judgments" in civil questions at issue.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I will send you Elijah the prophet: The book names the next prophet: "I will send you Elijah the prophet". Jesus identifies John the Baptist as this Elijah at Matthew 11:14 and 17:11 to 13. Jewish custom sets a cup and a chair for Elijah at Passover, and some Christian readers look for a forerunner to come.
Malachi 4:5
“Behold I will send (I send, as a future, proximate in the prophet’s mind) you Elijah the prophet - The Archangel Gabriel interprets this for us, to include the sending of John the Immerser.”
3 more voices on this verse
Malachi 4:5
“When he shall be sent--before the appearing of the Messiah, which, because it was the judgment of this world, and introduced the ruin of the Jewish church and nation, is here called the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Malachi 4:5
“As Moses in Mal 4:4 represents the law, so Elijah represents the prophets. The Jews always understood it of the literal Elijah. Their saying is, "Messiah must be anointed by Elijah." As there is another consummating advent of Messiah Himself, so also of His forerunner Elijah; perhaps in person, as at the transfiguration (Mt 17:3; compare Mt 17:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Malachi 4:5
“Elijah - Namely John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, Luke i, 17, and therefore bears his name. Before - That is, immediately before; so he was born six months before Christ, and began his preaching a few years before Christ began to exercise his publick office.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
turn the hearts of the fathers to their children: Elijah will "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children," or the LORD will "strike the land with a curse". English Bibles end the Old Testament on that word, and Matthew opens the New with a genealogy of fathers and children from Abraham and David.
Malachi 4:6
“And he shall turn (convert) the heart of the fathers (על al, with) the children - Or, together with the children; both old and young. Lest I come, and, finding them unconverted, smote the land with a curse, חרם cherem, utter extinction. So we find that, had the Jews turned to God, and received the Messiah at the preaching of John the Baptist and that of Christ and his apostles, the awful חרם cherem of final excision and execration would not have been executed upon them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Malachi 4:6
“With a curse - Which ends in utter destruction; leaving Jerusalem a desolate heap, and a perpetual monument of God's displeasure. Some observe, that the last word of the Old Testament is a curse: whereas the New Testament ends with a blessing, yea, the choicest of blessings, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all!”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Malachi 4:6
“For if God spare not the natural branches, the Jews, much less will He spare unbelieving professors of the Gentiles (Ro 11:20, 21). It is deeply suggestive that the last utterance from heaven for four hundred years before Messiah was the awful word "curse." Messiah's first word on the mount was "Blessed" (Mt 5:3). The law speaks wrath; the Gospel, blessing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Studies12
Words10
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
the site's Malachi guide, src/components/book/guides/malachi/MalachiGuide.tsx, the six disputations table, disputation VI and the closing charge.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.