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.
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.
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.
4Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
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.
Understand This
Malachi 4, explained
What Malachi 4 is saying
The final chapter of the Old Testament declares that the Day of the LORD will come burning like a furnace, consuming the arrogant and evildoers like stubble—but for those who fear God's name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. The book closes with a call to remember Moses's law and the promise that Elijah the prophet will come before that great and dreadful day, turning the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers.
The background behind it
Malachi 4 stands as the Old Testament's final word before the intertestamental period. The Elijah prophecy shaped Jewish messianic expectation for centuries and is explicitly applied to John the Baptist in the New Testament (Matthew 11:14, 17:10-13). The conjunction of Moses (law) and Elijah (prophecy) at the close anticipates their appearance at Jesus's transfiguration.
Themes running underneath
The two-outcome eschatology—furnace for the wicked, healing sun for the righteous—represents the definitive separation that the Day of the LORD brings. The 'sun of righteousness' (shemesh tsedaqah) may draw on ancient solar imagery while applying it to Yahweh's salvific intervention. The closing call to remember Moses and expect Elijah frames the entire prophetic tradition between law and eschatological hope.
Why it still matters
The Old Testament closes not with resolution but with anticipation—looking backward to Moses and forward to Elijah, creating the theological bridge that the New Testament claims to cross. The image of healing in the wings of the rising sun offers one of Scripture's most beautiful metaphors for restoration after long suffering.
Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.