Malachi 4:1

CHAPTER IV

God's awful judgments on the wicked, 1.

Great blessedness of the righteous, 2, 3.

The prophet then, with a solemnity becoming the last of the

prophets, closes the Sacred Canon with enjoining the strict

observance of the law till the forerunner already promised

should appear, in the spirit of Elijah, to introduce the

Messiah, and begin a new and everlasting dispensation, 4-6.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Malachi 4:1. Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven] The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

And all the proud] This is in reference to Malachi 3:15 of the preceding chapter.

The day that cometh shall burn them up] Either by famine, by sword, or by captivity. All those rebels shall be destroyed.

It shall leave them neither root nor branch.] A proverbial expression for total destruction. Neither man nor child shall escape.