4:1 (3:19)1 “For indeed the day2 is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It3 will not leave even a root or branch.
sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1ET = 3:19HT, 4:2ET = 3:20HT, etc., through 4:6ET = 3:24HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.
2
sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30–31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.
3
tnHeb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.