MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:1 Heading. Malachi acknowledges his role as a prophetic intermediary and explicitly identifies his book as the word of the LORD. In keeping with this, nearly half of the remaining 54 verses of this concise and profound book are punctuated with “says the LORD of hosts,” “says the LORD,” etc. (On the phrase “LORD of hosts,” see chart.) Similar to the headings found in Zech. 9:1 and 12:1 (cf. Hab. 1:1), Mal. 1:1 identifies the contents of this work as an oracle or a “burden,” with implications of urgent responsibility and even dread (Jer. 23:33–40; see note on Hab. 1:1). While Malachi directs his message to the postexilic remnant state of Judah, in Mal. 1:1 the prophet boldly confers on this people the ancient comprehensive designation of “Israel,” thereby identifying them as accountable for all the covenant obligations and as heirs of all the covenant promises of God.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:2–5 First Disputation: Does God Make a Distinction between the Good and the Arrogantly Wicked? God’s Elective Love Vindicated in His Judgment. Malachi exposes and answers the doubts of his contemporaries who question God’s love because of their political, economic, and spiritual destitution.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:2–3 In a classic text, which Paul quotes in Rom. 9:13, Malachi appeals to God’s elective and unconditional love of Jacob and corresponding hatred of Esau. In this context loved refers to choice rather than affection, and hated refers to rejection rather than animosity (which was explicitly prohibited against Edomites, Esau’s descendants, in Deut. 23:7). For a similar use of these terms, see Prov. 29:24; Luke 14:26; 16:13. Although Jacob and Esau were brothers, Jacob experienced God’s sovereign favor by which he was granted a privileged role in redemptive history as a bearer of the messianic promise, while Esau experienced God’s rejection in terms of this same role. Malachi’s concern, however, is primarily with the nations of Israel and Edom, of which Jacob and Esau were the representatives and progenitors. To Malachi’s contemporaries, it must have seemed that the prophet had committed a terrible blunder by citing the contrasting national fates of Israel and Edom as proof of Israel’s favored status. If God had chosen Jacob/Israel over Esau/Edom, why did he allow his people to suffer the total devastation of their country in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and 70 years of Babylonian captivity, while Edom remained intact and seemed only to benefit from Israel’s loss? Malachi makes his point, however, by alluding to Jer. 9:11. Two centuries earlier Jeremiah announced the Lord’s impending judgment against Judah: “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.” By applying this same threat to Edom, Malachi makes clear that, like Judah, Edom would not escape God’s judgment. It is likely that this judgment came through the agency of Nabatean Arabs, who gradually forced the Edomites from their homeland between 550 and 400 B.C., causing them to resettle in an area later called Idumea. Being semi-nomadic, the Nabateans allowed the cities of Edom to go to ruin while their herds overgrazed and destroyed previously arable land. Whereas Judah was graciously restored after her punishment, reflecting the Lord’s love for his people, Edom’s judgment was to be permanent and irreversible (Mal. 1:4). There would continue to be individual Edomites (implied by 1:4; cf. Mark 3:8), but they had forfeited their national identity.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:5 beyond the border of Israel. A chastened Israel will acknowledge the Lord’s universal sovereignty. This universal perspective, sometimes misunderstood as if it implied God’s acceptance of the religions of other nations, is a subtheme to which the prophet returns in vv. 11, 14, and 3:12.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:6–2:9 Second Disputation: Israel’s Begrudging Offerings Condemned. In his second disputation Malachi turns the tables on the complaint treated in the first. What should be questioned is not God’s love for Israel but Israel’s love for God. Malachi recognizes that all the people were guilty of dishonoring God, as revealed in their begrudging offerings (1:14). Nevertheless, he focuses on Israel’s priests (2:1–9) because it is their responsibility to guard the sanctuary from defilement and to inspect all sacrifices so as to exclude, for example, blind, lame, or sick animals (1:8; Lev. 22:17–25; Deut. 15:21; 17:1).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 1:11 Surprisingly, Malachi refers to the presentation of incense and pure offerings in many places, even among the nations, rather than exclusively in the temple in Jerusalem as Deuteronomy 12 requires (cf. Mal. 3:3–4; 4:4). A key to this controversial verse is to recognize that from the rising of the sun to its setting is standard predictive language regarding a future age of great blessing (e.g., Ps. 50:1; 113:3). Isaiah 45:6 and 59:19 include with this phrase a reference to the ultimate engrafting of the nations, suggesting that a similar meaning is implied in Malachi. This finds further definition in such texts as Isa. 19:19–25 and 66:1–21, where the nations will be made to be “Levites” and will offer acceptable offerings on approved altars to the true God. For the engrafting of converted Gentiles into Israel, cf. Ruth 1:16–17; Est. 8:17; Psalm 87; Isa. 56:6–8; Zech. 2:11; 8:23.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:2–9 Since the priests failed to guard the purity of the temple, the Lord threatens to punish them in a manner that fits their crime. Because they “despised” (1:6) and failed to give honor to the Lord’s name, they will be despised and abased before all the people. Because they “polluted” God (1:7), he will figuratively pollute and disqualify them for service at the altar by spreading on their faces the dung taken from their rejected sacrifices (2:3). Since that dung was to be taken away from the sanctuary and burned (e.g., Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:11ff.), so they too will be taken away. Because they presumed to bless the people of God, as if Israel’s sacrifices had been accepted and atonement made, God will now curse their blessings. As Matthew Henry put it, “Nothing profanes the name of God more than the misconduct of those whose business it is to do honor to it.” On the phrase guard knowledge, see note on Prov. 5:2–3.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:10–16 Third Disputation: Marriage to an Idolater—and Divorce Based on Aversion—Condemned by the Lord, Who Is Witness to the Covenant of Marriage. Malachi introduces his third disputation in v. 10 with a general description of Israel’s infidelity against one another, which profanes their covenant with God, the Father (see 1:6) and Creator of Israel (Deut. 32:6). Malachi condemns two parallel (though not necessarily related) marital offenses: intermarriage with pagans (Mal. 2:11; cf. Neh. 13:29) and divorce based merely on aversion or incompatibility (Mal. 2:13–16). Some have suggested that the divorces were for the purpose of intermarriage (see note on v. 16).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:13–14 Malachi’s contemporaries were distressed because God refused to accept their offerings, as evidenced by his withheld blessing. Malachi explains that God was acting as a witness against husbands who were unfaithful to their wives. Marriage is not just a contract, a two-way relationship between husband and wife, but a covenant, a three-way relationship in which the couple is accountable to God, for the LORD was witness to that covenant (see chart). For this reason, spousal fidelity is inextricably linked to spiritual well-being: a marriage must be in good repair, or else the couple’s prayers will be hindered (see 1 Pet. 3:7; cf. Matt. 5:23–25). Malachi’s view of marriage is as radical in conception (identifying marriage as a covenant between the spouses) and in the demands placed on the husband as that put forth in the NT. Other OT passages that support Malachi’s identification of marriage as a covenant include Prov. 2:17; Ezek. 16:8–14; and especially Genesis 2, where covenantal vocabulary (“leave” and “hold fast” in Gen. 2:24) is employed to describe a husband’s duty (cf. the covenantal use of “leave” and “hold fast” in, e.g., Deut. 4:4; 10:20; Josh. 1:5), and where Adam commits himself to Eve before God by employing a formula which is attested elsewhere in covenant-ratifying contexts: “this at last is bone of my bones” (Gen. 2:23; cf., e.g., 2 Sam. 5:1).
Why does the title “LORD of hosts” appear more frequently in Malachi than in any other OT book, and in the time of prophetic books more than during other time periods? In the period of Isaiah, the northern kingdom was overrun and destroyed and the southern kingdom almost destroyed by the “hosts” (armies) of Assyria. God’s people had so few troops that the Assyrian King Sennacherib could mockingly challenge King Hezekiah with the offer of a gift of 2,000 horses if Hezekiah could find enough soldiers to ride them (Isa. 36:8). Similarly, in the period of Jeremiah, the southern kingdom was wiped out by the hosts (armies) of Babylon.
In the postexilic period of Malachi, the postage-stamp-sized Judah, as a tiny province within the vast Persian Empire, had no army of its own. It is precisely in such times, when God’s people are painfully aware of how limited their own resources are, that there is no greater comfort than the fact that the Lord has his invincible heavenly armies standing at the ready. It is like the comfort that Elisha prayed for his servant at Dothan when they were surrounded by the Syrian armies: “‘O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). Perhaps it is like the comfort felt by Jesus before the cross: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53).
The following chart shows the percentages of verses in a book containing at least one occurrence of the phrase, “LORD of hosts” (or related variation):
The word “covenant” (Hb. berit) in the OT entails four essential components: (1) a relationship (2) with a nonrelative that (3) involves obligations and (4) is established through an oath. It is used seven times in Malachi (out of a mere 1,193 words): a rate 10 times greater than almost every other OT book (except for Deuteronomy, Joshua, Hosea, and Obadiah). This may explain why Malachi goes out of his way to identify marriage as a “covenant” (Proverbs is the only other book to do so explicitly). Malachi is also the only book to use the designation, “the messenger [or angel] of the covenant.”
View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c123
| Reference | Partners in Covenant | Qualities in Covenant |
|---|---|---|
| 2:4–5, 8 | Covenant between the Lord and Levi, of perpetual priesthood; corrupted in 2:8 | A covenant of life, peace, and reverence for the Lord (cf. Num. 25:12–13); broken covenant resulted in abasement of priesthood |
| 2:10 | Covenant of “our fathers” with the Lord | Expectation of fidelity of Judah, Israel, Jerusalem to an exclusive relationship with the Lord, implicates community relationships |
| 2:14 | Marital covenant between husband and wife | The Lord as witness, involving faithful relationship, the Spirit, and godly offspring |
| 3:1 | The messenger of the covenant (between God and his people) | The Lord as witness; future orientation, as the Lord’s longed-for presence results in purity in the community |
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:15 Make them one may be a reference to Gen. 2:24; if so, then perhaps Malachi derived his understanding of marriage as a covenant and the primacy of the husband’s obligation from the exemplary marriage of Adam and Eve. The translation and meaning of this verse are obscure, and various translations have rendered the verse differently, but the approach taken by the esv does account for the dire warnings in Mal. 2:15b and 16b. There is, then, a remarkable similarity between the logic of v. 15 and the teaching of Jesus in Matt. 19:5–9, namely, that it is God who joins a couple together; Malachi says there was a portion of the Spirit in their union. Furthermore, this verse asserts that the Lord intends marriage to produce godly offspring (lit., “a seed of God”). In Malachi’s view, divorce may frustrate this purpose in a manner analogous to marriage to an idolater (Ezra 10:3, 44; Neh. 13:23–27). The expression “a seed of God” reflects the imagery established in Mal. 2:10 (and 1:6) of God as a “Father” to his people, in virtue of his redemptive acts and covenant, and it offers an intentional contrast to the phrase in 2:11, “the daughter of a foreign god.”
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:16 The Hebrew text of this verse is one of the most difficult passages in the OT to translate, with the result that the two main alternative translations proposed for this verse are strongly disputed. The esv translation team has included in a footnote the other most common translation. Given the complexity of the linguistic issues involved, both alternatives are simply summarized briefly as follows, rather than presenting comprehensive arguments for each.
1. The esv text reads, the man who does not love his wife but divorces her. This rendering understands the Hebrew (and the Gk. of the Septuagint) in the sense of, “For he hates (or “does not love”) [and] he divorces.” The action of “hating” and thus “divorcing” is seen also in Deut. 24:3; further, the idea of a man “hating” his wife appears in Gen. 29:31; Deut. 21:15–17; 22:13; each case in the sense of “loving less” or “ceasing to love.” The expression covers his garment with violence is probably a figure of speech referring to the defiling of one’s character with violent wrongdoing (see the similar image in Ps. 73:6; 109:18; Rev. 3:4; and see the opposite in Job 29:14; Ps. 132:9; Isa. 59:17; 61:10). Although divorce based on loss of affection was recognized under the OT civic law, it is nowhere morally approved (unlike divorce based on a spouse’s sexual infidelity or desertion). This is so, as Malachi stresses, because divorce based merely on the loss of affection breaks the marriage covenant and defiles one’s character, since it is untrue to the creation ideal of faithfulness (Gen. 2:24; see note on Deut. 24:1–4).
2. The esv footnote reads, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and him who covers [his garment with violence].” This is similar to the rendering that originally appeared in English in the King James Version of 1611. If this alternative rendering is followed, the focus is on God’s hatred of the practice of divorce, rather than on the hatred of the divorcing man toward his wife. Also following this alternative rendering, the phrase “covers his garment with violence” is understood either: (a) with reference to a second thing that God hates in addition to divorce, namely, the person “who covers his garment with violence”; or, as some hold, (b) that God hates divorce because the act of divorce itself “covers [one’s] garment with violence.”
In either case, this passage is clear in its recognition that the biblical standard for marriage derives from the creation account (see notes on Gen. 2:23–24), which establishes the covenantal nature of marriage. (Jesus, when discussing a question about divorce, began with creation; Matt. 19:3–9.) Malachi starts from this creational base: he refers to creation (Mal. 2:10), calls marriage a covenant (v. 14), refers to the oneness of Gen. 2:24 (“union,” Mal. 2:15), and reminds the community of the purpose of marriage (“godly offspring,” v. 15). The man who would divorce the Israelite wife of his youth (perhaps even for the purpose of taking a pagan girl as his wife) thus commits a grievous offense: he violates the creation order, he breaks his covenantal relationship with his wife—and, in so doing, he deeply damages his character (“covers his garment with violence”). But the impact of divorce reaches far beyond the individual, for divorce has a ruinous effect on the vitality of the whole community (vv. 13–15) and on its ability to fulfill its calling as God’s holy people.
Again, in either case, God is opposed to the kind of divorce that is in view because of the destructiveness and pain that inevitably results when “faithless” husbands send away their wives, as mentioned in Mal. 2:13, 15. (See also the notes on Matt. 5:31–32; 19:3–9; Mark 10:10–12; 1 Cor. 7:15; and Divorce and Remarriage.)
MALACHI—NOTE ON 2:17–3:5 Fourth Disputation: The Lord Is a Witness against Adultery and Other Moral Offenses. The prophet begins by accusing the people of wearying the Lord with their cynical complaints: “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them” and “Where is the God of justice?” Now that they had returned to the Promised Land and the temple had been rebuilt, many were distressed at the apparent failure of the prophetic promises of restored prosperity, international prominence, and wealth (Haggai 2; Zech. 1:16ff.; 2:1–13; 8:1–9:17). Instead, Israel was experiencing only continued social and political oppression and economic privation (Neh. 1:3; 9:36ff.; Mal. 3:10ff.). Still worse, it had been promised that God would return to Jerusalem and to his temple, which he would again inhabit with his own glorious presence (e.g., Zech. 1:16ff.; 2:4ff., 10–13; 8:3–8; 9:9–17). Since Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were filled with the visible glory of God as soon as they were completed, it was hoped that the same would happen with the rebuilt temple (Ex. 40:34ff.; 1 Kings 8:10ff.; Ezek. 43:1–12). Indeed, Hag. 2:9 promised that the rebuilt temple would be filled with an even greater measure of glory than Solomon’s. But far from enjoying such radiant glory, the temple of Malachi’s day was devoid of any visible manifestation of God. Yet it would not always be so, for Malachi promised, “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Mal. 3:1). Simeon witnessed at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy when he encountered in the temple the infant Jesus, who had come “for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). The NT unfolds further fulfillment, for only the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ would be this greater glory (Luke 2:29–32; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:6).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:1 From the “delight” mentioned in this verse, it appears that Israel had repeated the error of their forebears in the days of Amos (Amos 5:18) by supposing that the Lord’s appearance would be unmitigated good news. When he comes, it will be not only for blessing, as they assume, but also for judgment—he will come to be a “witness” (the term in Mal. 3:5 is the same as in 2:14) against all evildoers, including these blasphemous cynics! In preparation for this fearful epiphany, the Lord promises, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” “My messenger,” who “will prepare the way,” is distinguished in 3:1a from the divine LORD of hosts, who is the speaker and to whom the pronouns “I,” “my,” and “me” refer. So the messenger in v. 1a is someone different from the Lord of hosts. And despite the fact that “my messenger” and “Malachi” are the same in Hebrew, the future-oriented context of vv. 1–5 and the parallel between 3:1 and 4:5 make clear that “my messenger” is not Malachi. Nevertheless, the play on Malachi’s name suggests that his own ministry of preparation was intended to foreshadow the work of this promised messenger in 3:1a. But in v. 1b, another idea is in view, for v. 1b speaks in poetic parallelism, in which two lines express the same idea in different words. Therefore, the Lord whom you seek is the same person as the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, and thus this coming “messenger of the covenant” is the same divine being as “the Lord,” who also is desired and will come. Then in the following verses, the ministry described in vv. 2–4 also indicates the divine nature of this coming Lord. The NT confirms this interpretation by its identification of John the Baptist as the promised messenger of v. 1a, who prepares the way for the Lord who is predicted in v. 1b (see Matt. 11:10–14 par.).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:2–5 When the Lord comes, he will perform two complementary works: he will purify some sinners (vv. 2–4) and judge others (v. 5). The images used for that purifying work, the refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap, stress both its thoroughness and its severity. The heat of the refiner’s fire was intense in order to separate the dross from the molten pure metal. Similarly, the fuller washed clothes using strong lye soap, after which the clothes would be placed on rocks and beaten with sticks. If sinners prefer the Lord’s cleansing work to his judgment, this is the price that must be paid (cf. Heb. 12:7–11).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:6–12 Fifth Disputation: Israel’s Begrudging Offerings Condemned. The prophet returns to Israel’s begrudging offerings, a subject treated in the parallel second disputation (1:6–2:9). There the emphasis was on the priests’ failure, but here Malachi’s concern expands to include the whole nation (3:9). Perhaps the reference to Jacob serves as a reminder of Jacob’s return from exile in Paddan Aram; upon coming back both to the Promised Land and to the Lord, he built an altar at Bethel and offered a tithe according to his vow in Gen. 28:20–22 (cf. Gen. 35:1–7). Similarly, when Jacob’s descendants returned from their exile, they rebuilt the altar at Jerusalem, but they were grossly negligent in offering their tithes (cf. Neh. 13:10–13). This negligence may have seemed justified because of crop failure, drought, and pestilence (Mal. 3:10–11). The Lord reveals, however, that these natural disasters were not the cause of the nation’s disobedience, but the cursed result (3:8; cf. Hag. 1:6, 9–11; 2:16–19).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:6 I the LORD do not change implies that God’s character and eternal purposes do not change, which gives a solid foundation for his people’s faith and hope. However, unchangeableness in character does not mean that the Lord is unchanging in his actions, for the very next verse, “Return to me and I will return to you” (v. 7), shows that God acts differently in response to different situations. Therefore implies that God’s purpose to bring blessing to the world through Abraham’s descendants and through a Davidic Messiah will not be defeated, and thus the children of Jacob are not consumed: their existence as the restored community is evidence of God’s faithfulness.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:8 you are robbing me. When the people did not give the “tithe” (see note on vv. 10–12), they were keeping wealth that rightly belonged to God.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:10–12 As an evidence of wholehearted repentance (v. 7), God promises that if his people become faithful in presenting their full tithe (the Hb. word means “a tenth”), then the desperately needed rain will come (v. 10), pestilence and crop failure will cease (v. 11), and the Abrahamic promise that all nations will call you blessed (v. 12; Ps. 72:17) will be fulfilled. The tithes were given to support the priests and Levites (see Neh. 10:38; 12:44), whose ministry was essential if Israel was to be faithful to its calling. By saying, “put me to the test,” God is challenging the people to give the tithe that they owed him and then watch to see if he would be faithful to his promise. God promises to meet all their needs, but not necessarily all their “greeds,” and to pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:13–4:3 Sixth Disputation: Does God Make a Distinction between the Good and the Arrogantly Wicked? God’s Elective Love Vindicated in His Judgment. This section echoes the first disputation; there, the focus was on his people and “not-his-people” (see note on 1:2–3; cf. Hos. 1:9), while here it is on those of his own people who do and do not embrace the covenant.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:13–15 The sixth disputation begins with Israel’s audacious and blasphemous complaint that it is vain to serve God. It looks like keeping his charge and walking as in mourning are parallel statements, which suggests that they refer to ceremonial or liturgical requirements such as the ritual mourning about which Israel boasts in Zech. 7:1–6. Because of their hypocrisy, these acts had degenerated into meaningless formalities (Isa. 58:3–9; Mal. 2:13).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:16 In sharp contrast to the fault-finding cynics, a second group is now mentioned, those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. Just as the Lord recounts the contemptuous blasphemies of the first group (vv. 13–15), so he overhears the faithful conversation of the second. Similar to the honor roll kept by King Xerxes, which recorded the long-unrewarded faithfulness of Mordecai (Est. 6:1–3), a book of remembrance is written in God’s presence concerning these faithful believers. Similar books of significant deeds were kept by kings in the ancient world (see Est. 2:23; 6:1). This image of God’s record book, which appears throughout Scripture (see e.g., Ex. 32:32–33; Ps. 56:8; 139:16; Dan. 7:10; 12:1; Rev. 20:12), indicates that God will never forget and will rightly judge both the good deeds of the righteous and the evil deeds of the wicked.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 3:17–4:3 The insolent complainers had charged that “evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape” (3:15). But in 3:17–4:3 the Lord promises that a day is coming when these complainers will see how wrong they were. For those faithful believers listed in the “book of remembrance” (3:16), it will be a day when God will say, “They shall be mine,” his treasured possession (3:17; cf. Ex. 19:5), and they will be spared as a man spares his son who serves him. Although for the arrogant and all evildoers it will be a day when they are burned up like stubble, for those who fear God’s name it will be a day when the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings (Mal. 4:2; cf. Isa. 60:1–3; Luke 1:78), and they will subdue the wicked.
MALACHI—NOTE ON 4:2 Just as the sun drives away darkness and clouds, bringing light and joy, so the sun of righteousness will appear to dispel gloom, oppression, and injustice. For the image of the rising sun applied to a great visitation from God, cf. Isa. 60:1–2; for the recognition that the birth of John the Baptist had ushered in this expected era, see Luke 1:78. The “righteousness” brought by this “sun” includes both judgment on evildoers and reward for those who are righteous in their deeds. Its wings are a poetic image for the rays of this sun, bringing healing to all who come under its influence. Some suggest that ancient Near Eastern depictions of a winged sun disk are reflected in the image. Malachi’s readers probably would have thought this image predicted the sudden appearance of God himself, who is elsewhere compared to the sun (Ps. 84:11; Isa. 60:19–20; cf. Ps. 27:1; Isa. 60:1; Rev. 21:23). But Christian interpreters throughout the history of the church have understood this prophecy to be fulfilled in Christ, who is “the light of the world” (John 8:12; cf. John 1:4–6).
MALACHI—NOTE ON 4:4–6 Conclusion. These closing appeals summarize the main points of Malachi’s prophecy: Remember the law of my servant Moses (the focus of the first three disputations) and the promised sending of Elijah the prophet before the coming day of the LORD (the focus of the last three disputations). Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exodus 19–20; Deut. 5:2). Malachi’s own thoroughgoing dependence on the Law of Moses and many allusions to Pentateuchal texts prepare the reader for the first climactic charge. In the second charge, the reason for the identification of the coming prophet as “Elijah” is less obvious. Perhaps the need for an Elijah-like ministry was suggested by a long-standing drought (Mal. 3:10; cf. 1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17). Alternatively, Malachi’s concern with the corrosive effects of marriage to an idolater (Mal. 2:10–12) may have brought to mind Ahab’s notorious interfaith marriage to Jezebel, which proved so troublesome to Elijah and so disastrous to Israel (1 Kings 16:31; 18:4, 19; 19:2). No doubt Malachi would have welcomed an Elijah-like challenge to religious compromise and complacency (1 Kings 18). It seems most likely, however, that Malachi recognized that of all the OT prophets, Elijah best fit the portrait of the messianic prophet “like Moses” predicted in Deut. 18:15 and 34:10–12. As such, Elijah stands alongside Moses in Mal. 4:4–6 as the representative of the entire OT line of prophets, much as he functions on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4 and parallels). The promise to send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome “day of the LORD” confirms the interpretation given here of Mal. 3:1–5, that the promised messenger is not Malachi himself but some future prophet. It is likely that this future prophet is identified with Elijah not because Elijah was spared from death, as if this might permit a literal return to life, but because the future messenger would have a prophetic ministry similar to that of the historical Elijah. Compare the many OT predictions of a future “David” that do not suggest David’s literal return to life (Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23–25; 37:24). The NT identifies John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophesied Elijah (Matt. 11:10–14; 17:10–13; etc.). When John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah (John 1:21, 25), it is possible either that he was denying that he was Elijah in person, or that he rejected not the ministry predicted in Malachi but misguided popular elaborations of this promise based on other notable features in the original Elijah’s ministry, especially his many miracles, which pointed more to Christ than to John (John 10:41; see note on Matt. 11:14). (For more on “the day of the LORD,” see note on Amos 5:18–20.)