Malachi 4

1"Look, the day is coming, and it will burn like an oven. All the proud people, and everyone who does evil, will be like dry straw. The day that is coming will burn them up," says the LORD of Hosts, the commander of heaven's armies. "It will leave them no root and no branch."

1For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Note"Stubble" is the short dry stalks left in a field after the grain has been cut. Farmers burned it off; it flares and is gone in moments. "Neither root nor branch" is a Hebrew way of saying nothing whatever is left, nothing above ground and nothing below it; some readers have also heard in it "no ancestors and no descendants," the wiping out of a family line. In printed Hebrew Bibles these six verses are not a separate chapter at all; they are the closing verses of chapter 3.

2"But for you who honor my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings. You will go out and jump around like calves let out of the stall.

2But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Note"Fear my name" translates a Hebrew word closer to reverence or awe than to being frightened, which is why the rendering says "honor." A sun disc with outstretched wings was a familiar emblem across Egypt and the wider ancient Near East, stamped on seals and carved over doorways; the Hebrew word for "wings" also covers the edges or skirts of a garment, and by extension the spreading rays of the sun. KJV's "his wings" is not a statement about a person: older English used "his" where we now say "its." "Calves of the stall" are calves shut in a pen to be fattened; the picture is of them let loose into open pasture and kicking about.

3You will walk all over the wicked. They will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do this," says the LORD of Hosts.

3And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

4"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the rules and the decisions I gave him at Mount Horeb for all Israel.

4Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

NoteHoreb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain where Israel received the law after leaving Egypt. "Statutes and judgments" are two kinds of law: fixed standing decrees, and rulings handed down on particular cases, roughly what we would call legislation and case law.

5Look, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and terrifying day of the LORD arrives.

5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

NoteElijah was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel about four centuries before Malachi. According to 2 Kings 2 he did not die but was carried off in a whirlwind, which is why a promise of his return could be made at all. "The day of the LORD" was already a set phrase among the prophets for a decisive day when God acts openly to judge and to set things right. KJV's "dreadful" carries its older sense: full of dread, awe-inspiring, not merely unpleasant.

6He will turn the hearts of parents toward their children, and the hearts of children toward their parents. If he does not, I will come and strike the land with a curse."

6And 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.

NoteThe Hebrew is genuinely open here. "Fathers" and "children" may mean literal parents and children, with family quarrels healed; or the "fathers" may be the ancestors of Israel, with their descendants brought back to their ways. The word behind "curse" is *herem*, a term used of things placed under a ban and devoted to total destruction, considerably heavier than the English "curse" suggests. "Earth" here translates a word that means both the whole earth and, more narrowly, the land of Israel. Because the Hebrew Bible ends on this word, synagogue readings repeat verse 5 after verse 6 so the reading does not close on it.