^3:13“You have criticized me sharply,”²³ says the Lord, “but you ask, ‘How have we criticized you?’ ^3:14You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped²⁴ by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all?²⁵^3:15So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful.²⁶ In fact, those who challenge²⁷ God escape!’ ”

^3:16Then those who respected²⁸ the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice.²⁹ A scroll³⁰ was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name. ^3:17“They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property.³¹ I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. ^3:18Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between³² the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

^{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. ^4:2But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication⁴ will rise with healing wings,⁵ and you will skip about⁶ like calves released from the stall.

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Malachi 3:17: “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Footnotes

23 Heb “your words are hard [or “strong”] against me”; cf. “said harsh things against me”; , “said terrible things about me.”
24 Heb “What [is the] profit”; “What did we gain.”
25 The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.
26 Heb “built up” (so ); , “prosper”; “get rich.”
27 Or “test”; , “put God to the test.”
28 Or “fear” (so ); “revered”; “honored.”
29 Heb “heard and listened”; “listened attentively.”
30 The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12–15).
31 The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה (ségullah, “special property”) is a technical term referring to all the recipients of God’s redemptive grace, especially Israel (Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). The Lord says here that he will not forget even one individual in the day of judgment and reward.
32 Heb “you will see between.” Cf. , , “see the difference.”
1 Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (), with 4:1 = 3:19 , 4:2 = 3:20 , etc., through 4:6 = 3:24 . Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.
2 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 Heb “so that it” (so , ). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.
4 Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsédaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so , , , ; cf. “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. 842 צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.” The expression the sun of vindication will rise is a metaphorical way of describing the day of the Lord as a time of restoration when God vindicates his people (see 2 Sam 23:4; Isa 30:26; 60:1, 3). Their vindication and restoration will be as obvious and undeniable as the bright light of the rising sun.
5 The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).
6 Heb “you will go out and skip about.”