6 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.
And many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to [the] Lord their God. And *he* shall go before him in [the] spirit and power of Elias, to turn hearts of fathers to children, and disobedient ones to [the] thoughts of just [men], to make ready for [the] Lord a prepared people.
but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
For where we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and heat of fire about to devour the adversaries. Any one that has disregarded Moses' law dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses: of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, To me [belongs] vengeance; *I* will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, The Lord shall judge his people. [It is] a fearful thing falling into [the] hands of [the] living God.
so that all righteous blood shed upon the earth should come upon *you*, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [the city] that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;
And he said unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off according to it on this side; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off according to it on that side.
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not, (he that reads let him consider [it],) then let those in Judaea flee to the mountains; and him that is upon the housetop not come down into the house, nor enter [into it] to take away anything out of his house; and him that is in the field not return back to take his garment. But woe to those that are with child and to those that give suck in those days! And pray that it may not be in winter time; for those days shall be distress such as there has not been the like since [the] beginning of creation which God created, until now, and never shall be; and if [the] Lord had not cut short those days, no flesh should have been saved; but on account of the elect whom he has chosen, he has cut short those days. And then if any one say to you, Lo, here [is] the Christ, or Lo, there, believe [it] not. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and give signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But do *ye* take heed: behold, I have told you all things beforehand. But in those days, after that distress, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give its light; and the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers which are in the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall they see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory;
He that testifies these things says, Yea, I come quickly. Amen; come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [be] with all the saints.
And out of his mouth goes a sharp [two-edged] sword, that with it he might smite the nations; and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod; and he treads the wine-press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
but bringing forth thorns and briars, it is found worthless and nigh to a curse, whose end [is] to be burned.
for these are days of avenging, that all the things that are written may be accomplished. But woe to them that are with child and to them who give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress upon the land and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of [the] nations until [the] times of [the] nations be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity [at] the roar of the sea and rolling waves, men ready to die through fear and expectation of what is coming on the habitable earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And as he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, even at least in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace: but now they are hid from thine eyes; for days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall make a palisaded mound about thee, and shall close thee around, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children in thee; and shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou knewest not the season of thy visitation.
And *thou*, child, shalt be called [the] prophet of [the] Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of [the] Lord to make ready his ways;
and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to sweep away the drunken with the thirsty. Jehovah will not pardon him, but the anger of Jehovah and his jealousy will then smoke against that man, and all the curse shall be upon him that is written in this book; and Jehovah will blot out his name from under the heavens; and Jehovah will separate him for mischief out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law. And the generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and its sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath visited it, [that] the whole ground thereof is brimstone and salt, [and] burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, and no grass groweth in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and in his fury: even all nations shall say, Why has Jehovah done thus to this land? whence the heat of this great anger? And men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah the God of their fathers, which he had made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; and they went and served other gods, and bowed down to them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not assigned to them. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book; and Jehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in fury, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as [it appears] this day. The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children's for ever, to do all the words of this law.
And Peter, remembering [what Jesus had said], says to him, Rabbi, see, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is dried up.
For as the lightning goes forth from the east and shines to the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. [For] wherever the carcase is, there will be gathered the eagles. But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the land lament, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And this shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
And I will assemble all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah, and behold, I will deliver men, every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and I will not deliver out of their hand.
And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war, -- the desolations determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many [for] one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations [there shall be] a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.
to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
And I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the ban, and Israel to reproaches.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Malachi 4
Commentary on Malachi 4 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
This admonition to the ungodly is explained in Malachi 4:1. by a picture of the separation which will be effected by the day of judgment. Malachi 4:1. “For behold the day cometh burning like a furnace, and all the proud and every doer of wickedness become stubble, and the coming day will burn them, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it will not leave them root or branch. Malachi 4:2. But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise and healing in its wings, and ye will go out and skip like stalled calves, Malachi 4:3. And will tread down the ungodly, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I create, saith Jehovah of hosts.” The day of judgment will be to the ungodly like a burning furnace. “A fire burns more fiercely in a furnace than in the open air” (Hengstenberg). The ungodly will then resemble the stubble which the fire consumes (cf. Isaiah 5:24; Zephaniah 1:18; Obadiah 1:18, etc.). זדים and עשׂה רשׁעה point back to Malachi 3:15. Those who are called blessed by the murmuring nation will be consumed by the fire, as stubble is burned up, and indeed all who do wickedness, and therefore the murmurers themselves. אשׁר before לא יעזב is a conjunction, quod ; and the subject is not Jehovah, but the coming day. The figure “root and branch” is borrowed from a tree - the tree is the ungodly mass of the people (cf. Amos 2:9) - and denotes total destruction, so that nothing will be left of them. To the righteous, on the other hand, the sun of righteousness will arise. Ts e dâqâh is an epexegetical genitive of apposition. By the sun of righteousness the fathers, from Justin downwards, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand Christ , who is supposed to be described as the rising sun, like Jehovah in Psalms 84:12 and Isaiah 60:19; and this view is founded upon a truth, viz., that the coming of Christ brings justice and salvation. But in the verse before us the context does not sustain the personal view, but simply the idea that righteousness itself is regarded as a sun. Ts e dâqâh , again, is not justification or the forgiveness of sins, as Luther and others suppose, for there will be no forgiving of sins on the day of judgment, but God will then give to every man reward or punishment according to his works. Ts e dâqâh is here, what it frequently is in Isaiah (e.g., Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 51:5, etc.), righteousness in its consequences and effects, the sum and substance of salvation. Malachi uses ts e dâqâh , righteousness, instead of ישׁע , salvation, with an allusion to the fact, that the ungodly complained of the absence of the judgment and righteousness of God, that is to say, the righteousness which not only punishes the ungodly, but also rewards the good with happiness and salvation. The sun of righteousness has מרפּא , healing, in its wings. The wings of the sun are the rays by which it is surrounded, and not a figure denoting swiftness. As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of the plants and living creatures, so will the sun of righteousness bring the healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of darkness has inflicted upon the righteous. Then will they go forth, sc. from the holes and caves, into which they had withdrawn during the night of suffering and where they had kept themselves concealed, and skip like stalled calves (cf. 1 Samuel 28:24), which are driven from the stall to the pasture. On pūsh , see at Habakkuk 1:8. And not only will those who fear God be liberated from all oppression, but they will also acquire power over the ungodly. They will tread down the wicked, who will then have become ashes, and lie like ashes upon the ground, having been completely destroyed by the fire of the judgment (cf. Isaiah 26:5-6).
Concluding Admonition. - Malachi 4:4. “Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him upon Horeb for all Israel, statutes and rights.