Malachi
Name, Authorship, and Canonical Status
Unlike the other compositions in the Book of the Twelve (the “Minor Prophets”), Malachi may not be named for a prophet. Malachi means “my messenger,” and there is good reason not to construe the word in 1.1 as a proper name, especially since the name does not appear elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint does not translate it as a name, and in fact the same word appears in Mal 3.1, where it is translated as “my messenger.”
The book begins in similar fashion to Zech 9.1 and 12.1, suggesting that three collections (Zech 9–12; 12–14; and Malachi) were appended to Zech 1–8. An interest in creating a collection of twelve prophetic books may have resulted in the identification of Malachi as a separate book.
Date of Composition and Historical Context
Scholars generally agree that the book of Malachi dates to the period after the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 515 bce. Reference to a governor (1.8), and not a king, clearly points to the Persian era. The book may have been composed in Judah prior to the time that Ezra and Nehemiah were active, i.e., in the early decades of the fifth century bce. Problems that Malachi addresses, such as tithing, are also attested in the book of Ezra-Nehemiah (Neh 13.5,12), suggesting that these books date to roughly the same period. The book uses earlier biblical traditions, particularly Deuteronomy and ritual texts.
Structure, Contents, and Interpretation
Malachi includes a distinctive form of literature, often characterized as a disputation. This genre has striking similarities to Greek diatribes. There are six such rhetorical units (1.2–5; 1.6–2.9; 2.10–16; 2.17–3.5; 3.6–12; 3.13–4.3). In all of them, two parties—God and some group—engage in a stylized dialogue. All six units include questions, posed sometimes by the deity, other times by the people. Moreover, each disputation quotes the Lord's opponents. What the people say often seems outlandish, e.g., “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them” (2.17) or “It is vain to serve God” (3.14).
The book addresses several topics: the permanence of the Lord's care for Israel, the need to venerate the Lord alone, the importance of tithing and justice, and hope for those who fear the Lord. Two topics are particularly prominent—the international scope of God's reign and the ritual world of the Temple.
In the Hebrew Bible, Malachi ends the Book of the Twelve and the entire division of the canon called the Prophets. In Christian Bibles, it concludes the Old Testament. The book's final words about the prophet Elijah are interpreted in the Gospels as referring to John the Baptist.
David L. Petersen
1 An oracle. The word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.a
2I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” Is not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob 3but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals. 4If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says: They may build, but I will tear down, until they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. 5Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the borders of Israel!”
6A son honors his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?” 7By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, “How have we polluted it?”b By thinking that the Lord's table may be despised. 8When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. 9And now implore the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. The fault is yours. Will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10Oh, that someone among you would shut the templec doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. 11For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and the food for itd may be despised. 13“What a weariness this is,” you say, and you sniff at me,e says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14Cursed be the cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.
2 And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them,a because you do not lay it to heart. 3I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.b
4Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts. 5My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.
10Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? 11Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this—any to witnessc or answer, or to bring an offering to the Lord of hosts.
13And this you do as well: You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. 14You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15Did not one God make her?a Both flesh and spirit are his.b And what does the one Godc desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. 16For I hated divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.
17You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
3 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.e 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
6For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. 7Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?”
8Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings! 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! 10Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 11I will rebuke the locusta for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. 12Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
13You have spoken harsh words against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, “How have we spoken against you?” 14You have said, “It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? 15Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape.”
16Then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the Lord and thought on his name. 17They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them. 18Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
4b See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
4Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.a