Malachi 3:15
in Malachi 3So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape.
KJV
And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
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This verse in Malachi 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 15) Therefore now we call the arrogant blessed, for they who practice wickedness are built up and they have tested God, and they have escaped. LXX: And now we call the arrogant blessed. Yes, they who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempted God and escaped. Therefore, we call those arrogant individuals blessed, who boast against God and hurl impious blasphemies. Indeed, they have been successful and enjoy prosperity even after their crimes and blasphemies. They have tested God, whether they resist Him or not, and have been saved.
This site's exposition
Your words have been stout against me
on Malachi 3:13-15
Your words have been stout against me opens the sixth dispute with the same skeptical pattern as before, Wherein have we spoken so much against thee answered by a direct quotation of what the people have actually been saying. It is vain to serve God names the complaint plainly, obedience judged worthless because it seems to yield no profit, while we call the proud happy, and they that work wickedness are set up, the wicked's apparent prosperity again used, as in chapter 2, to erase any real distinction between righteousness and sin. Even they that tempt God are even delivered closes the complaint at its most extreme, testing the Lord's patience treated as a strategy that succeeds rather than a provocation that will be judged.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And now we call the proud happy,.... Or "therefore now" (q); since this is the case, that the worshippers of God are not regarded, and there is nothing got by serving him; they that are proud and haughty, that neither fear God nor regard men, are the happy persons; even presumptuous sinners, as the word (r) signifies, that stretch out their hands against God, and strengthen themselves against the Almighty; these enjoy all worldly happiness, while they that serve the Lord are mourning in sackcloth, and are in the utmost distress.
8 ), much more for the pleadings of his advocates. Never was any good word spoken of God, or for God, from an honest heart, but it was registered, that it might be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, and in no wise lose its reward. (3.) He promises them a share in his glory hereafter (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And now we call the proud happy (blessed) - This being so, they sum up the case against God. God had declared that all nations should “call them blessed” Mal 3:12. if they would obey. They answer, using His words; And “now we (they lay stress on the word we,) pronounce blessed,” in fact, those whom God had pronounced cursed: Psa 119:21. “Thou hast rebuked the proud, who are cursed.” Their characteristic, among other bad men, is of insolence Pro 21:24. arrogance, boiling over with self-conceit, and presumptuous toward God.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
And now--Since we who serve Jehovah are not prosperous and "the proud" heathen flourish in prosperity, we must pronounce them the favorites of God (Mal 2:17;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And now we call the proud happy - Proud and insolent men are the only happy people, for they domineer everywhere, and none dares to resist them. They that work wickedness are set up - The humble and holy are depressed and miserable; the proud and wicked are in places of trust and profit. Too often it is so. They that tempt God are even delivered - Even those who despise God, and insult his justice and providence, are preserved in and from dangers; while the righteous fall by them.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
“It is futile to serve God” We worship Him for nothing, for we will receive no reward.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְעַתָּ֕ה | veatah | and therefore | H6258 → | 433 times |
| אֲנַ֖חְנוּ | ʾanachnu | we | H587 → | |
| מְאַשְּׁרִ֣ים | measherim | [are] calling blessed | H833 → | |
| זֵדִ֑ים | zedim | arrogant [people] | H2086 → | |
| גַּם־ | gam- | both | H1571 → | 769 times |
| נִבְנוּ֙ | nivnu | they have been built up | H1129 → | 376 times |
| עֹשֵׂ֣י | ʾosei | [those who] do | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| רִשְׁעָ֔ה | rishah | <of> wickedness | H7564 → | 15 times |
| גַּ֧ם | gam | as well as | H1571 → | 769 times |
| בָּחֲנ֛וּ | bachanu | they have tested | H974 → | |
| אֱלֹהִ֖ים | ʾelohim | God | H430 → | 2601 times |
| וַיִּמָּלֵֽטוּ׃ | vaiyimaletu | and they have escaped | H4422 → |
וְעַתָּ֕הand therefore
veatahH6258 →433 times
אֲנַ֖חְנוּwe
ʾanachnuH587 →
מְאַשְּׁרִ֣ים[are] calling blessed
measherimH833 →
זֵדִ֑יםarrogant [people]
zedimH2086 →
גַּם־both
gam-H1571 →769 times
נִבְנוּ֙they have been built up
nivnuH1129 →376 times
עֹשֵׂ֣י[those who] do
ʾoseiH6213 →2628 times
רִשְׁעָ֔ה<of> wickedness
rishahH7564 →15 times
גַּ֧םas well as
gamH1571 →769 times
בָּחֲנ֛וּthey have tested
bachanuH974 →
אֱלֹהִ֖יםGod
ʾelohimH430 →2601 times
וַיִּמָּלֵֽטוּ׃and they have escaped
vaiyimaletuH4422 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Malachi 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of…
it leads to
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8
in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
- 2 Peter 3:7
And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
- Malachi 3:2
But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Isaiah 47:14
Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.
- Isaiah 5:24
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8
Through
Job 22:23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents
it leads to
- Zechariah 1:3
So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
- Job 11:13–14
As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Job 8:5–6
But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
- Zechariah 1:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Malachi
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Malachi; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.