“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies.
Parallel Translations
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“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies.
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For, 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.
But 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.
And 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.
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(3-19) For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall set them ablaze, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
(3-20) But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.
(3-21) And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do make, saith the LORD of hosts.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (101)
- Jeremiah 33:6 (v2) ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- Psalms 84:11 (v2) For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
- Isaiah 30:26 (v2) Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of…
- Luke 1:78 (v2) because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high will visit us,
- John 8:12 (v2) Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Isaiah 53:5 (v2) But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his…
- Revelation 22:16 (v2) I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and…
- 2 Samuel 23:4 (v2) shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through…
- Malachi 3:16 (v2) Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (v1) punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- John 1:4 (v2) In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
- 2 Peter 3:7 (v1) But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and…
- 2 Peter 1:19 (v2) We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and…
- Psalms 147:3 (v2) He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
- Revelation 22:2 (v2) in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit…
- Ruth 2:12 (v2) May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take…
- Revelation 2:28 (v2) and I will give him the morning star.
- Malachi 3:2 (v1) “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;
- Psalms 103:3 (v2) who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,
- Matthew 4:15-16 (v2) “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness…
- Psalms 92:12-14 (v2) The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in Yahweh’s house. They will…
- Isaiah 47:14 (v1) Behold, they are like stubble. The fire will burn them. They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It won’t be a coal to…
- Isaiah 55:12-13 (v2) For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the…
- Ezekiel 47:12 (v2) By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit…
- John 9:4 (v2) I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.
- John 12:35-36 (v2) Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you.…
- Acts 13:47 (v2) For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the uttermost…
- Acts 26:18 (v2) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
- Psalms 67:1 (v2) May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us.
- Psalms 85:9 (v2) Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
- Proverbs 4:18 (v2) But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.
- Isaiah 5:24 (v1) Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness,…
- Isaiah 9:2 (v2) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death.
- Isaiah 35:6 (v2) Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in…
- Isaiah 50:10 (v2) Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name,…
- Hosea 6:1 (v2) “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
- Hosea 6:3 (v2) Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain,…
- Matthew 11:5 (v2) the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news…
- Luke 2:32 (v2) a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
- Job 40:12 (v3) Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.
- Isaiah 60:1-3 (v2) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you. For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness…
- Isaiah 66:1-2 (v2) Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest? For my hand…
- Hosea 14:4-7 (v2) “I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will…
- Matthew 23:37 (v2) “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children…
- Luke 1:50 (v2) His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.
- John 1:8 (v2) He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
- John 1:14 (v2) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Ephesians 5:8-14 (v2) For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:3 (v2) We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love…
- 1 John 2:8 (v2) Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away and the true light already…
- Revelation 11:18 (v2) The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their…
- Isaiah 49:6 (v2) Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of…
- Isaiah 57:18-19 (v2) I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the…
- Jeremiah 17:14 (v2) Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
- Obadiah 1:18 (v1) The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour…
- Romans 16:20 (v3) And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
- Isaiah 49:9-10 (v2) saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their…
- Micah 7:10 (v3) Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her…
- Zechariah 10:5 (v3) They shall be as mighty men, treading down muddy streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because Yahweh is with them; and the riders…
- Malachi 3:15 (v1) Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
- John 12:40 (v2) “He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would…
- 2 Peter 3:18 (v2) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
- Joshua 10:24-25 (v3) When they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went…
- Job 18:16 (v1) His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above.
- Psalms 91:13 (v3) You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.
- Isaiah 2:12-17 (v1) For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:…
- Isaiah 60:19-20 (v2) The sun will be no more your light by day; nor will the brightness of the moon give light to you, but Yahweh will be your everlasting…
- Joel 2:1 (v1) Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes,…
- Micah 5:8 (v3) The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among…
- Zephaniah 1:18 (v1) Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the…
- Malachi 3:17 (v3) They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son…
- John 15:2-5 (v2) Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are…
- Genesis 3:15 (v3) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise…
- Exodus 15:7 (v1) In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.
- Isaiah 25:10 (v3) For Yahweh’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the…
- Isaiah 26:6 (v3) The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.”
- Jeremiah 31:9-14 (v2) They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which…
- Daniel 7:18 (v3) But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’
- Nahum 1:5-6 (v1) The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who…
- Nahum 1:10 (v1) For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
- Zephaniah 1:14 (v1) The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
- Zechariah 14:1 (v1) Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your plunder will be divided within you.
- Malachi 3:18 (v1) Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
- Malachi 4:5 (v1) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Matthew 3:12 (v1) His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the…
- Luke 21:20 (v1) “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
- Acts 13:26 (v2) Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you.
- Revelation 11:15 (v3) The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and…
- 2 Samuel 22:43 (v3) Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.
- Psalms 119:119 (v1) You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love your testimonies.
- Isaiah 63:3-6 (v3) “I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their…
- Ezekiel 28:18 (v3) By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your commerce, you have profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought…
- Daniel 7:27 (v3) The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, will be given to the people of the saints of the Most…
- Joel 2:31 (v1) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Luke 19:43 (v1) For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
- Revelation 14:20 (v3) The wine press was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one…
- Psalms 21:9-10 (v1) You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them. You…
- Isaiah 40:24 (v1) They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they…
- Isaiah 41:2 (v1) Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him and makes him rule over…
- Ezekiel 7:10 (v1) “ ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (101 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 He confirms the previous verse, for he denounces ruin…
He confirms the previous verse, for he denounces ruin on all the reprobate and the despisers of God; and he also confirms what I have mentioned, — that he sets this threatening in opposition to the slanders which they commonly uttered against God, as though he had ceased to discharge his office as a Judge. Though indeed he speaks in the third person, yet he is not deficient in force when he says,
Behold, come shall the day, which shall consume all the ungodly, as a burning oven the stubble. The comparison is very common which the Prophet uses, when he says, that the ungodly shall be like stubble: I trill not therefore quote passages which must be well known, and they are so many that there is no need to adduce here either two or three of them. The vengeance of God is also often compared to fire and to a flame; and we know how fierce and how dreadful an element is fire, when it lays hold on wood or some other dry material. Hence according to the common usage of Scripture, the Prophet says, that the day of the Lord would be like an oven, and that the ungodly would be like stubble. The demonstrative particle, Behold, shows certainty, Behold, I come. The present time is put here for the future, a common thing in Hebrew. But the Prophet called the attention of the Jews as it were to what was present, that his prophecy might not appear doubtful, and that they might understand that God’s vengeance was not far distant, but already suspended over their heads.
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There is however a question as to the day which he points out. The greater part think that the Prophet speaks of the last coming of Christ, which seems not to me probably. It is indeed true that these and similar expressions, which everywhere occur in Scripture, have not their full accomplishment in this world; but God so suspends his judgements, as yet never to withhold from giving evidences of them that the godly may have some props to their faith: for if God gave no specimen or proof of his providence, it would immediately occur to our minds, that there is to be no judgement; but he sets before us some examples, that we may learn that he will some time be the judge of the world. It seems then to me more probable, that the Prophet speaks here of the renovation of the Church: for the wrath of God was then at length more kindled against the Jews, when they had alienated themselves from Christ; for their last hope and their last remedy in their evils was the aid of the Redeemer, and it was for the rejection of his favor that the Jews had to feel the dreadful punishment of their ingratitude. No sin could have been more atrocious than to have rejected the offered favor, in which their happiness and that of the whole world consisted. When the Prophet then says, that the day would come, be refers I think to the first coming of Christ; for the Jews made a confident boast of the coming of a Redeemer, and he gives them this answer — that the day of the Lord would come, such as they did not imagine, but a day which would wholly consume them, according to a quotation we have made from another Prophet,
“What will be the day of the Lord to you? that day will not be light, but darkness, a thick darkness and not brightness.” (Amos 5:18.)
The day of the Lord will be an unhappy event to you, as though one escaped from the jaws of a lion, and fell at home on a serpent. So in this place he says that the day would come, which would consume them like an oven.
He says that all the proud and the workers of iniquity would be like stubble. He repeats their words, but somewhat ironically; for when they had said before that the proud were happy, they regarded themselves as being far from being such characters. Isaiah also in like manner condemned hypocrites, because they exposed to contempt their own brethren; for the worshippers of God were at that time in great reproach among the Jews; yea, hypocrites disdainfully treated the godly and the upright, as though they were the dregs and filth of the people. So also they said, “Behold, we are constrained, not without great sorrow, to look on the happiness of the ungodly; for the proud and the despisers of God enjoy prosperity, they live in pleasures.” The Prophet now answers them ironically and says, “Ye shall see the difference which ye so much wish; for God will consume the proud and the ungodly.” He says this of them; but it is, as I have stated, as though he had said, “When your mask is taken away, Ye shall see where impiety is, that it is even in you; and therefore ye shall suffer the punishment which you have deserved.” This is the return which he had before mentioned: for though the ungodly do not seriously and sincerely return to God, yet they are forced, willing or unwilling, to acknowledge their impiety when God constrains them. Hence after they had been constrained to examine their own life, God visited them with the punishment they most justly deserved, though judgement had been invoked by themselves.
He now adds, And it will leave neither root nor branch. He means here that their ruin would be complete, as though he had said, that no residue of them would be found. As he had made them like stubble, so he mentions root and stalk; for branch is improper here, as he speaks of stubble, and branches belong to trees. The meaning, however, is not obscure, which is — that such would be the consumption that nothing would remain. This, indeed, properly belongs to the last judgement; but, as I have said, this is no reason why God should not set before our eyes some evidences of that vengeance which awaits the ungodly, by which our faith may be more and more confirmed daily.
With regard to God’s name, which is mentioned twice, he reminds us that God does not execute his judgements in an even or a continued course, but that he has a fixed time, now for forbearance, then for vengeance, as it seems good to him. Whenever then the day of the Lord is mentioned in Scripture, let us know that God is bound by no laws, that he should hasten his work according to our hasty wishes; but the specific time is in his own power, and at his own will. On this subject I lightly touch only, because I have explained it more fully elsewhere. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 He prophesieth of God’s judgments against the wicked, who…
He prophesieth of God’s judgments against the wicked, who would not receive Christ, when as God should send him for the restoration of his Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Mal 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall…
Mal 4:1 For, 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.
Ver. 1. For, behold, the day cometh] This chapter should not be divided from the former; for here God’s different dealing with the righteous and the wicked, proposed in the former verse, is further amplified by various effects of Christ’s coming in the flesh. And if any ask, saith an interpreter, how this was verified of that his first coming? we answer, It was an initial or incipient stage, and by way of preparation, then; and shall be consummate in the day of the last judgment. This day comprehendeth all that time that is called by the apostle, "the ends of the world," 1Co 10:11, and "the world to come," Heb 2:5; all the administrations of Christ’s kingdom, from his incarnation to the end of all things, which also is at hand, and, as it were, under view already. "Behold, the day," that notable day, so long looked for by the Jews, who boasted of a Redeemer, and promised themselves all possible comforts then: Tunc enim Deus nos dignabitur clarissima visione, saith Jachiades on Dan 12:4, tunc intelligemus res ipsas prout sunt: Then shall we have a most clear vision of things as they are, &c. Lo, that day cometh; not such a day as you imagined, but like that in Amos, "A day of darkness, and not light: even very dark, and no brightness in it," Amo 5:20. A day that shall burn like an oven; Nebuchadnezzar’s oven, seven times more heated than it was wont, Dan 3:19. This day is come, the end is come, it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come, Eze 7:6. It was fulfilled in part upon this people at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and their miserable exile ever since for their unbelief. Howbeit, all these are but the beginning of sorrows; their present sorrows but a typical hell, "the pile whereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, doth kindle it," Isa 30:33. It is said to be "prepared for the devil and his angels," Mat 25:41, as if the all-powerful wisdom did deliberate, and, as it were, sit down and devise most tormenting temper, for that most formidable fire. The fire of the last day shall surely be very terrible, when all the world shall be on ablaze with fire, and wicked men shall give account with flames about their ears, with the elements melting and falling like scalding lead or burning bell metal on their heads. But all this will be but a shadow or spark of that fire of hell, the smoke whereof ascendeth for ever and ever, Rev 19:3. Some have held the fire of hell to be no true material; and corporeal fire but metaphorical, of a type known to God. qualem novit Deus. The most conspire in the contrary tenet; because bodies are to be punished by it. How spirits are also thus tormented, as the rich glutton’s, Luk 16:24, Austin sits down and admires the mystery; he tells us that for vehemence of heat it exceeds our fire, as far as ours doth fire that is painted on a wall (De Civ. Dei, lib. 21, c. 10). I would we had not cause to complain that preaching of hell is but as the painting of fire; which men can look on and handle without harm or fear. Surely he that observes the impiety of this age may say to us, as Cato did to Caesar, Credo, quae de inferis dicuntur, falsa existimas, I believe you think hell to be a very fable, Esse aliquos manes nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur (Juven.).
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And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, &c.] Those proud whom you pronounced happy, Mal 3:15, because jolly, and full of worldly prosperity, rich and renowned; those workers of wickedness, whom you looked upon as set up, built upon a firm basis: God shall abase every one that is lifted up, he shall repay the wicked doer to his face, Deu 7:10, and into his bosom, Isa 65:6. Whatever arrows are in the bow string will one day fly and hit, and strike deep. They shall be as stubble, saith the text, as stubble that is fully dried, Nah 1:10, even when they be folden together as thorns. "Who would set these briers and thorns against me in battle?" saith the Lord: "I would go through them, I would burn them together," Isa 27:4. Did he not deal so by Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, the primitive persecutors? &c. Those mighty Magnificos that here seemed fortes, ferrei, et aenei, strong, and made up, as it were, of brass and iron, shall appear to be but as stubble, that cannot stand before God’s fire.
The day that cometh shall burn them up] Heb. Shall so burn them ut flamma ex ipsis excitetur, as to set them aflame. Here Christ burns up his enemies with invisible judgments, inward terrors and torments, pangs and plunges, a very hell in their consciences, a foretaste of eternal torment (as was to be seen in Belshazzar, and our Richard III). But what will they do at the last day, when the law they shall be judged by is a fiery law, Deu 33:2, the tribunal of fire, Eze 1:27, the judge a consuming fire, Heb 12:29, his attendants flaming seraphims, his pleading with sinners in flames of fire, 2Th 1:7, the place of punishment a lake of fire fed with a river of brimstone? Isa 30:33; what can be the fruit of such a fiery proceeding but utter excision? Surely this fire will leave them neither root nor branch.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The words immediately foregoing (which, as we have the…
The words immediately foregoing (which, as we have the chapters divided, did end the third chapter) foretold a day to come then, though it is now long since past, in which such judgments should be executed upon the Jewish nation, as should make the stoutest contemners of God to see and acknowledge his different respects and providences toward the good and toward the evil. Now in this verse (which continueth the discourse) he accounteth how it should be.
Behold; mark well what now the Lord doth foretell
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The day, before mentioned, the day of visitation and discerning of men, cometh; though it be at some four hundred years’ distance from you, yet it is coming, and will overtake you, and overwhelm you too about that time; nay, you shall have some tastes of bitter cups before, some less and shorter troubles, the presage and assurance of that dreadful day I now speak of, saith our prophet.
That shall burn as an oven: the refiner’s fire, Mal 3:2, is now represented to us as a fire burning more dreadfully, which really was more dreadful in the fulfilling than here it is in the prediction; when Jerusalem and the temple were on fire, and none could quench it; when the fire raged every where, but burnt most fiercely where the arched roofs did make it, as in ovens or furnaces, to double itself, and infold flames with flames, and with dreadful roarings increased its terrors. This day may well be an emblem of the day of judgment, and this place may be accommodated thereto, but it principally speaks of the times of vengeance on Jerusalem in its final desolation.
All the proud; such as are described Mal 1:13; 3:13-15. All that do wickedly: this is another part of the character of these persons, and explicatory of the former passage; proud men, such as the text mentions, will be wicked workers.
Shall be stubble; dried and cast into the oven, consumed as soon as cast in.
The day that cometh; of which already, Mal 3:17, and in this verse.
Shall burn them up; totally and speedily consume them.
Saith the Lord of hosts; added to confirm the certainty of the thing; the Lord of hosts hath said it shall be, and he can do what he saith he will.
It shall leave them neither root nor branch; in allusion to the utter extirpation of trees for the fire, whose branches lopped off, the body cleft, and the roots stocked up, and all cast into the fire; so that nothing remains but the ashes, into which all is turned: and this was fully accomplished upon the irreligious Jews, when the Romans burnt their city and temple, and destroyed the people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The great and terrible day of the Lord is…
The great and terrible day of the Lord is here prophesied of. This, like the pillar of cloud and fire, shall have a dark side turned towards the Egyptians that fight against God, and a bright side towards the faithful Israelites that follow him: The day cometh, that is, the Lord cometh, the day of the Lord; and it has reference both to the first and to the second coming of Jesus Christ; the day of both was fixed, and should answer the character here given of it.
I. In both Christ is a consuming fire to those that rebel against him. The day of his coming shall burn as an oven; it shall be a day of wrath, of fiery indignation. This was foretold concerning the Messiah, Psa 21:9, Thy hand shall find out all thy enemies, and shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger. It will be a day of terror and destruction like the burning of a city, or rather of a wood, the trees whereof are withered and dried, for to that the allusion seems to be, as Isa 10:17, Isa 10:18, The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field. Now observe here, 1. Who shall be fuel to this fire - all the proud in heart, whose words have been stout against God, and their necks stiff and unapt to yield to the yoke of his commandments (all those that in the pride of their countenances will not seek after God, nor submit to the grace and government of Jesus Christ - all that proudly say they will not have Christ to reign over them), and all those that do wickedly in their affections and conversations, that wilfully persist in sin, in contempt of and contradiction to the law of God; they are such as do wickedly against the covenant, as another prophet had lately expressed it, Dan 11:32. God, that has perfect knowledge of every one's character, knows who are the proud, and of every one's actions, knows who they are that do wickedly; and they shall be as stubble to this fire; they shall be consumed by it, easily consumed, utterly consumed, and it is wholly owing to themselves that they shall be so, for they make themselves stubble, that is, combustible matter, to this fire. If they were not stubble, it would not burn them; for the fire will be to every man according as he and his works are found; if they be wood, hay, and stubble, they will be consumed; but if they be gold, solver, and precious stones, they will abide the fire and be purified by it, Co1 3:13-15. Those that by their unbelief oppose Christ thereby set themselves as briers and thorns before a devouring fire, Isa 27:4, Isa 27:5. 2. What shall be the force and what the fruit of this fire: The day that cometh shall burn them up, shall both terrify and ruin them, and shall leave them neither root nor branch, neither son nor nephew (so the Chaldee paraphrase): neither they nor their posterity shall be spared; they shall be wholly extirpated and cut off. Who knows the power of God's anger? The proud and those that do wickedly will not fear it, but they shall be made to feel it. Where are those now that called the proud happy, when thus they are made completely miserable, when there remains no branch of their happiness to be enjoyed for the present, nor any root of it out of which it might again spring up? Now this was fulfilled, (1.) When Christ, in his doctrine, spoke terror and condemnation to the proud Pharisees and the other Jews that did wickedly, when he sent that fire on the earth which burnt up the chaff of the traditions of the elders and the corrupt glosses they had put upon the law of God. (2.) When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the nation of the Jews, as a nation, quite blotted out from under heaven, and neither root nor branch left them. This seems to be principally intended here; our Saviour says that those should be the days of vengeance, when all the things that were written to that purport should be fulfilled, Luk 21:22. Then the unbelieving Jews were as stubble to the devouring fire of God's judgments, which gathered together to them as the eagles to the carcase. (3.) It is certainly applicable, and is to be applied, to the day of judgment, to the particular judgment at death (some of the Jewish doctors refer it the punishment that seizes on the souls of the wicked immediately after they go out of the body), but especially to the general judgment, at the end of time, when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, to execute judgment on the proud, and all that do wickedly. The whole world shall then burn as an oven, and all the children of this world, that set their hearts upon it and choose their portion in it, shall take their ruin with it, and the fire then kindled shall never be quenched.
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II. In both Christ is a rejoicing light to those who serve him faithfully, to those who fear his name and give him the glory due to it (Mal 4:2), who stand in awe of that name of his which the wicked profane and trample upon. Here are mercy and comfort kept in store for all those who fear the Lord and think on his name. Observe,
1. Whence this mercy and comfort shall flow to them: To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings. The day that comes, as it will be a stormy day to the wicked, a day in which God will rain upon them fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, as he did on Sodom (Psa 11:6), a day of clouds and thick darkness (Amo 5:18, Amo 5:20), so it will be a fair and bright day to those who fear God, and reviving as the rising sun is to the earth; and particular notice is taken of the rising of the sun upon Zoar when that was mercifully distinguished from the cities of the plain, which the fire consumed; see Gen 19:23. So to those that fear God is comfort spoken. When the hearts of others fail for fear let them lift up their heads for joy, for their redemption draws nigh, Luk 21:28. But by the Sun of righteousness here we are certainly to understand Jesus Christ, who would undertake to secure the believing remnant, in the day of the general destruction of the Jews, from falling with the rest, and to comfort them in that day of distress and perplexity with his consolations; he directed those that were in Judea to flee to the mountains (Mat 24:16), and they did so, and were all safe and easy in Pella. But it is to be applied more generally, (1.) To the coming of Christ in the flesh to seek and save those that were lost; then the Sun of righteousness arose upon this dark world. Christ is the light of the world, the true light, the great light that makes day and rules the day (Joh 8:12), as the sun. He is the light of men (Joh 1:4), is to men's souls as the sun is to the visible world, which without the sun would be a dungeon; so would mankind be darkness itself without the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ. Christ is the Sun that has light in himself, and is the fountain of light (Psa 19:4-6); he is the Sun of righteousness, for he is himself a righteous Saviour. Righteousness is both the light and the heat of this Sun; the word of his righteousness is so; it guides, instructs, and quickens; so is the everlasting righteousness he has brought in. He is made of God to us righteousness; he is the Lord our righteousness, and therefore is fitly called the Sun of righteousness. Through him we are justified and sanctified, and so are brought to see light. This Sun of righteousness, in the fulness of time, arose upon the world, and with him light came into the world (Joh 3:19), a great light, Mat 4:16. In him the day-spring from on high visited us, to give light to those that sit in darkness, Luk 1:78, Luk 1:79. Righteousness sometimes signifies mercy or benignity, and it was in Christ that the tender mercy of our God visited us. (2.) It is applicable to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit, brought into the souls of men. Grotius understands it of Christ's giving the Spirit to those that are his, to shine in their hearts, and to be a comforter to them, a sun and a shield. Those that are possessed and governed by a holy fear of God and a dread of his majesty shall have his love also shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost; and then the sun may be said to arise there, and to bring both a delightful day and a fruitful spring along with it. (3.) Christ's second coming will be a glorious and welcome sun-rising to all that fear his name; it will be that morning of the resurrection in which the upright shall have dominion, Psa 49:14. That day which to the wicked will burn as an oven will to the righteous be bright as the morning; and it is what they wait for, more than those that wait for the morning.
2. What this mercy and comfort shall bring to them: He shall arise with healing under his wings, or in his rays or beams, which are as the wings of the sun. Christ came, as the sun, to bring not only light to a dark world, but health to a diseased distempered world. The Jews (says Dr. Pocock) have a proverbial saying, As the sun riseth, infirmities decrease; the flowers which drooped and languished all night revive in the morning. Christ came into the world to be the great physician, yea, and the great medicine too, both the balm in Gilead and the physician there. When he was upon earth, he went about as the sun in his circuit, doing this good; he healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among the people; he healed by wholesale, as the sun does. He shall arise with healing in his skirts; so some read it, and they apply it to the story of the woman's touching the hem of his garment, and being thereby made whole, and his finding that virtue went out of him, Mar 5:28-30. But his healing bodily diseases was a specimen of his great design in coming into the world to heal the diseases of men's souls, and to put them into a good state of health, that they may serve and enjoy both God and themselves.
3. What good effect it shall have upon them. (1.) It shall make them vigorous in themselves: "You shall go forth, as those that are healed go abroad and return to their business." The souls shall go forth out of their bodies at death, and the bodies out of their graves at the resurrection, as prisoners out of their dungeons, and both to see the light and be set at liberty. "You shall go forth as plants out of the earth, when in the spring the sun returns." Some make it to mean the going forth of the Christians from Jerusalem, and the escape they thereby made from its destruction. And thus the souls on whom the Sun of righteousness arises go forth out of the world, go forth out of Babylon, as those that are made free indeed. "You shall likewise grow up; being restored to health and liberty, you shall increase in knowledge, and grace, and spiritual strength." The souls on which the Sun of righteousness arises are growing up towards the perfect man; those that by the grace of God are made wise and good are by the same grace made wiser and better; and their path, like that of the rising sun, shines more and more to the perfect day, Pro 4:18. Their growth is compared to that of the calves of the stall, which is a quick, strong, and useful growth. "You shall grow up, not as the flower of the field, which is slender, and weak, and of little use, and withers soon after it has grown up, but as the calves of the stall," that, as one of the rabbin expounds it, grow great in flesh and fatness, with which both God's altars and men's tables are replenished; so the growth of the saints, on whom the Sun of righteousness arises, honours both God and man. Some read it, instead of You shall grow up, You shall move yourselves, or leap for joy, shall be as frolicsome as calves of the stall, when they are let loose in the open field; it denotes the joy of the saints, who rejoice in Christ Jesus; they shall even leap for joy; they are always caused to triumph.
(2.) It shall make them victorious over their enemies (Mal 4:3): You shall tread down the wicked. Time was when the wicked trod them down, said to their souls, Bow down, that we may go over; but the day will come when they shall tread down the wicked. The wicked, being made Christ's footstool, are made theirs also (Psa 110:1), and come and worship before the feet of the church, Rev 3:9. The elder shall serve the younger. When believers by faith overcome the world, when they suppress their own corrupt appetites and passions, when the God of peace bruises Satan under their feet, then they tread down the wicked. When it came to the turn of the Christians to triumph over the Jews that had insulted over them, then this promise was fulfilled: They shall be ashes under the soles of your feet; they shall not only be trodden down, but trodden to dirt. When the day that comes shall have burnt them up, they shall trample upon them as ashes. When the righteous shall rise to everlasting life, the wicked shall rise to everlasting contempt; and, though they shall not triumph over them, they shall triumph in that God whose justice is glorified in their destruction. The saints in glory are said to have power given them over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron, Rev 2:26, Rev 2:27. This you shall do, in the day that I shall do this. Note, The saints' triumphs are all owing to God's victories; it is not they that do this, but God that does it for them, that says, Come set your feet on the necks of these kings. Some read it, "In the day that I make, or shall make, the great day that I shall make remarkable, of which you will say with joy, This is the day which the Lord has made." The day of the destruction of Jerusalem is called the great and notable day of the Lord (Act 2:20), and our Saviour in foretelling that destruction made use of such expressions as, like these, might be applied likewise to the end of the world and the last judgment; for it was such a terrible revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, and caused such a scene of horror upon this earth, that it might fitly serve for a type of that glorious transaction which will be an outlet to the days of time and an inlet to the days of eternity. By the accomplishment of these prophecies in the ruin of the Jewish nation, we should have our faith confirmed in the assurances Christ has given us concerning the dissolution of all things. Surely I come quickly; so says Christ, the Lord of hosts, to whom all power in heaven and earth is committed.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as…
For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven,.... Not the day of judgment, as Kimchi and other interpreters, both Jewish and Christian, think; but the day of Christ's coming in his kingdom and power, to take vengeance on the Jewish nation, which burned like an oven, both figuratively and literally; when the wrath of God, which is compared to fire, came upon that people to the uttermost; and when their city and temple were burnt about their ears, and they were surrounded with fire, as if they had been in a burning oven: and this being so terrible, as can hardly be conceived and expressed, the word "behold" is prefixed to it, not only to excite attention, but horror and terror at so dreadful a calamity; which though future, when the prophet wrote, was certain:
and all the proud; yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; the proud Pharisees, that boasted of their own righteousness, trusted in themselves, and despised others; all workers of iniquity, in private or in public; all rejecters of Christ, contemners of his Gospel and ordinances, and persecutors of his people; as well as such who were guilty of the most flagitious crimes, as sedition, robbery, murder, &c. of which there were notorious instances during the siege of Jerusalem; these were all like stubble before devouring fire, weak and easily destroyed:
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and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts: which is repeated, to show the certainty of it, and to apply it to the persons before described:
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch: which signifies an entire and complete destruction; the city and temple so utterly destroyed, that not one stone shall be left on another; both magistrates and subjects shall perish, priests and people, so that there shall be no form of government, civil nor ecclesiastical; tribes and families lost, they and their posterity: and so the Targum,
"which shall not leave them son and nephew:''
and, indeed, the numbers cut off were so many, and the destruction so general, that it may be wondered at that any remained: it is a proverbial expression, setting forth the greatness of the calamity; see Mat 3:10.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The approaching misery of the wicked, and happiness of…
The approaching misery of the wicked, and happiness of the righteous, ver. 1-3. A direction to keep to the law, and to expect Elijah, that is, John the Baptist, the fore-runner of the Messiah, ver. 4-6.
Cometh - Tho' it be at a distance from you, yet it is coming and will overtake you and overwhelm you too. As an oven - The refiner's fire, chap. iii, 2, is now represented as a fire, burning more dreadfully, as it did indeed when Jerusalem and the temple were on fire, when the fire raged everywhere, but most fiercely where the arched roofs made it double itself, and infold flames with flames. And this may well be an emblem of the day of judgment.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 God's awful judgments on the wicked, 1.
CHAPTER IV
God's awful judgments on the wicked, 1.
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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 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 Mal 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Mal 4:1. For behold the day cometh — Though…
Mal 4:1. For behold the day cometh — Though it may appear to be at a distance from you, yet it is coming, and will soon overtake and overwhelm you: even that great and terrible day of the Lord, as it is called Joe 2:31. That shall burn as an oven — God is described as a consuming fire, when he comes to execute his judgments, Deu 4:24, and the prediction here was remarkably verified when, upon the taking of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by the Roman army under Titus, they were both destroyed by such flames as no human power could quench. The refiner’s fire, mentioned Mal 3:2, now became unspeakably more dreadful, raging everywhere through the city and temple, and most fiercely where the arched roofs made it double itself and infold flames within flames: by which terrible destruction, and the judgments accompanying it, an end was put to the whole state of the Jews: an awful image this of the conflagration of the heavens and the earth, and the final judgment of the last day on the whole human race. And all the proud — Such especially as those spoken of Mal 3:15. And all that do wickedly — All impenitent sinners, of whatever kind, whether heathen, Jews, or Christians, so called, even all that do not obey the truth, whether manifested by God’s works or his word, but obey unrighteousness, shall be as stubble — Shall perish by these awful judgments. And the day that cometh shall burn them up — Shall totally and speedily consume them. It shall leave them neither root nor branch — A proverbial expression for utter destruction, and signifying, as applied to the unbelieving Jews, that both they and their families should be utterly destroyed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 For, behold, the day cometh, which shall burn as…
For, behold, the day cometh, which shall burn as an oven - He had declared the great severance of the God-fearing and the God-blaspheming, those who served and those who did not serve God; the righteous and the wicked; now he declares the way and time of the severance, the Day of Judgment. Daniel had described the fire of that day, Dan 7:9-10, “The throne (of the Ancient of days) was a fiery flame; his wheels a burning fire: a fiery stream issued and came forth from Him: the judgment was set and the books were opened.” Fire is ever spoken of, as accompanying the judgment Psa 50:3. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence, a fire shall devour before Him Isa 66:15-16. Behold the Lord will come with fire: for by fire and by the sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: 1Co 3:13 every man’s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire: and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” Peter tells us that fire will be of this burning world; 2Pe 3:7-10. “the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of’ ungodly men; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
The oven, or furnace, pictures the intensity of the heat, which is white from its intensity, and darts forth, fiercely, shooting up like a living creature, and destroying life, as the flame of the fire of Nebuchadnezzars Dan 3:22 “burning fiery furnace slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” The whole world shall be one burning furnace.
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And all the proud and all that do wickedly - All those, whom those complainers pronounced “blessed,” Mal 3:15, yea and all who should thereafter be like them (he insists on the universality of the judgment), “every doer of wickedness,” up to that day and those who should then be, shall be stubble.” The proud and mighty, who in this life were strong as iron and brass, so that no one dared resist them, but they dared to fight with God, these, in the Day of Judgment, shall be most powerless, as stubble cannot resist the fire, in an ever-living death.”
That shall leave them neither root nor branch - “i. e. they shall have no hope of shooting up again to life; that life, I mean, which is worthy of love, and in glory with God, in holiness and bliss. For when the root has not been wholly cut away, nor the shoot torn up as from the depth, some hope is retained, that it may again shoot up. For, as it is written Job 10:4 :7, ‘There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sproul again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.’ But if it be wholly torn up from below and from its very roots, and its shoots be fiercely cut away, all hope, that it can again shoot up to life, will perish also. So, he saith, will all hope of the lovers of sin perish. For so the divine Isaiah clearly announces Isa 66:24, “their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Furnace. At the day of judgment, the difference between…
Furnace. At the day of judgment, the difference between the just and the wicked will plainly appear. (Worthington) --- This sense is most generally given, as well as to those words where our Saviour speaks of the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world together, Matthew xxiv. 3., and Luke xxi. 5. Yet the prophet may also allude to the punishment of the Jews by the Romans, when all were assembled at the Passover, (Calmet) a scourge which the Christians escaped by retiring to Pella. (Eusebius, History of the Church iii. 5.) --- Proud. Septuagint, "strangers." (Calmet) --- Branch. No hope shall remain. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 The effect of the judgment on the righteous, as…
The effect of the judgment on the righteous, as contrasted with its effect on the wicked (Mal 4:1). To the wicked it shall be as an oven that consumes the stubble (Mat 6:30); to the righteous it shall be the advent of the gladdening Sun, not of condemnation, but "of righteousness"; not destroying, but "healing" (Jer 23:6).
you that fear my name--The same as those in Mal 3:16, who confessed God amidst abounding blasphemy (Isa 66:5; Mat 10:32). The spiritual blessings brought by Him are summed up in the two, "righteousness" (Co1 1:30) and spiritual "healing" (Psa 103:3; Isa 57:19). Those who walk in the dark now may take comfort in the certainty that they shall walk hereafter in eternal light (Isa 50:10).
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in his wings--implying the winged swiftness with which He shall appear (compare "suddenly," Mal 3:1) for the relief of His people. The beams of the Sun are His "wings." Compare "wings of the morning," Psa 139:9. The "Sun" gladdening the righteous is suggested by the previous "day" of terror consuming the wicked. Compare as to Christ, Sa2 23:4; Psa 84:11; Luk 1:78; Joh 1:9; Joh 8:12; Eph 5:14; and in His second coming, Pe2 1:19. The Church is the moon reflecting His light (Rev 12:1). The righteous shall by His righteousness "shine as the Sun in the kingdom of the Father" (Mat 13:43).
ye shall go forth--from the straits in which you were, as it were, held captive. An earnest of this was given in the escape of the Christians to Pella before the destruction of Jerusalem.
grow up--rather, "leap" as frisking calves [CALVIN]; literally, "spread," "take a wide range."
as calves of the stall--which when set free from the stall disport with joy (Act 8:8; Act 13:52; Act 20:24; Rom 14:17; Gal 5:22; Phi 1:4; Pe1 1:8). Especially the godly shall rejoice at their final deliverance at Christ's second coming (Isa 61:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v1 Mal_4:1-3 are closely connected with Mal_3:18. These verses describe…
Mal_4:1-3 are closely connected with Mal_3:18. These verses describe the judgment to be executed upon the wicked (1), and the blessing to be poured upon the good (2, 3).
For — Connects Mal_4:1 with Mal_3:18, they will discern, because the events described here will take place.
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The day — The day of Jehovah alluded to in Mal_3:2; Mal_3:17 (see on Joe_1:15).
Burn as an oven — R.V., “furnace.” The terror of the day is likened to a fire raging in an oven or furnace that devours everything.
Stubble — Dry stubble cast into the fire is easily consumed (see on Amo_7:4-6); so evil doers are easily consumed in the day of judgment (compare Isa_5:24; Zep_1:18).
All that do wickedly — Now they may flourish (Mal_3:15), but their doom is already decreed.
Neither root nor branch — The destruction will be complete (see on Mal_2:12; Amo_2:9).
2, 3. How different will be the fate of the righteous!
Fear my name — See on Mal_3:16, and references there. At present the God-fearing persons may seem to be forgotten by Jehovah, but he remembers their names, and in due time he will send relief and salvation.
The Sun of righteousness — “Just as in the material world the shadows and distortions and illusions of night vanish before the light of the rising sun, which shows all things as they really are, so in the moral world the Sun of righteousness shall put to flight the difficulties and perplexities, the inequalities and anomalies, which have been the trial of the faithful and the weapon of the scoffer” (compare Isa_60:1). The promise of the rising of the Sun of righteousness is not a direct foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus; it refers rather to the manifestation of the divine righteousness in the day of reckoning (Mal_3:1), which will result in the justification of himself and in the salvation of the righteous.
Healing — From all hurts and pains that now afflict them.
In his wings — That is, the rays emanating from the sun. As light and warmth are scattered in every direction through these rays, so the healing influences of the Sun of righteousness will be felt everywhere.
Go forth,… grow up as calves — When they are touched by the life-giving power of the divine righteousness “they shall be like calves, which are forced to stand through the winter in narrow stalls, but in early spring, when the sun comes forth from the wintry cloud veil, are again driven into the open, and therefore leap and skip with unrestrained joy.” For grow up R.V. reads “gambol,” which is preferable (compare Isa_35:6; Hab_1:8).
Then they will be exalted, while the wicked, now proud and prosperous (Mal_3:15), will be trampled under foot.
Ye shall tread down… ashes — The wicked, devoured by the fire of judgment, are reduced, as it were, to ashes, and like ashes they lie helpless upon the ground, while the pious, leaping for joy, pass over them. Of course, these statements are not to be understood literally; they present simply a picture of the great contrast between the destiny of the righteous and that of the wicked.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Mal_4:1. the day] i.e. “the day” predicted in the…
Mal_4:1. the day] i.e. “the day” predicted in the preceding verse, with which this verse coheres closely. The commencing of a new chapter here in A.V. (and LXX., after Vulg., though not in our present Hebrew Bibles) is unfortunate. The R.V. rightly prints from Mal_3:13 to Mal_4:3 inclusive in a continuous paragraph.
that shall burn as an oven] Rather, it burneth as a furnace, R.V. Comp. ἡ γὰρ ἡμέρα δηλώσει, ὅτι ἐν πυρὶ ἀποκαλύπτεται, for the day shall declare it, because it (the day) is revealed in fire, 1Co_3:13.
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all the proud … all that do wickedly] The judgment passed on them by the scoffers (Mal_3:15) shall be signally reversed.
root nor branch] A sudden change of figure from the straw or “stubble” to the tree which succumbs to the raging fire, till neither root nor branch remains.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) The day already foretold in Mal_3:2 shall be…
IV.
(1) The day already foretold in Mal_3:2 shall be as a fire burning fiercely as a furnace, and “the wicked”—not only the heathen, but the murmurers themselves, so far from being accounted happy (Mal_3:15)—shall be as “stubble.” (Comp. Isa_5:24; Zep_1:18; Oba_1:18, &c.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Vers. 1-3. 4. The final separation of the evil…
Vers. 1-3. 4. The final separation of the evil and the good at the day of judgment.
Burn as an oven (a furnace). Fire is often spoken of in connection with the day of judgment and the advent of the Judge. It is a symbol of the holiness of God, which consumes all impurity, and also represents the punishment inflicted on the ungodly. (Psa_1:3 Isa_10:17 Isa_66:15, 16 Dan_7:9, 10 Joe_2:30 1Co_3:13 2Pe_3:7, etc.) The LXX adds, "and it shall burn them." Stubble; (see note on Oba_1:18) or, perhaps, chaff, as Mat_3:11, Mat_3:12. Root nor branch The ungodly are regarded as a tree which is given up to be burned so that nothing of it is left. The same metaphor is used by John the Baptist. (Mat_3:10 Amo_2:9) The Hebrew text includes this chapter in ch. 3.
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HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The Divine fire.
"The day cometh that shall bum as an oven." Fire is one of the most familiar figures of the Divine working. It is one of the forces which man most dreads when it gets beyond control. And it is the force on which man most relies for the purifying of the good and the destruction of the evil. The fire of the oven is fire at its intensest. A hole is dug in the ground, a fire of stubble is kindled in it; by this time a large stone is heated, and on the stone the bread can be baked. Malachi has already dealt with the refining power of the fire of God. That which is good is freed and cleansed and improved by means of it. The prophet does not see the whole of the features of the day of God; only those which are directly related to the condition and needs of the people in his day. Every prophet is one-sided; and we must learn from all if we would apprehend the whole of truth, even concerning the Divine fire. Malachi had to adapt his teachings to some who were sincere but mistaken. To them the Divine fire is disciplinary. "He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." But he had also to adapt his teachings to some who were wilfully and persistently wrong. To them the Divine fire is, In some sense, destructive consuming. "The proud shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up." There are two things characteristic of the Divine fire, which are suggested by the double figure of refining and consuming.
I THE OPERATION OF THE DIVINE FIRE DEPENDS ON WHAT IT OPERATES ON. This is one of the most marked peculiarities of common fire. It scatters water; it melts wax; it destroys wood; it hardens clay; it purifies metal. It makes silver valuable; it makes dross worthless. And so with the Divine fire. The apostle dwells on its testing power; (1Co_3:13) but here its actual moral effect on differing characters is indicated. Take classes of character in Malachi"s time, and show the different effects which Divine dealings had upon them. Take types of character now, and show how Divine dealings soften or harden.
II THE DIVINE FIRE IS DESTRUCTIVE OF THE FORMS OF THINGS, NOT OF THINGS. Science now explains that common fire destroys nothing; it only Changes the forms and relations of things. When the state of the wicked is irremediable by any existing moral forces, then their form and relation must be changed. As in the time of the Flood, humanity had to be put in new conditions. God"s fire destructions always begin a new regime. R.T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-3. The day of the world"s retribution.
"For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven," etc. A graphic representation of these verses is given by Stanley: "The day spoken of was to be like the glorious but terrible uprising of the Eastern sun, which should wither to the roots the insolence and the injustice of mankind; but as its rays extended, like the wings of the Egyptian sun, God should, by its healing and invigorating influences, call forth the good from their obscurity, prancing and bounding like the young cattle in the burst of spring, and treading down under their feet the dust and ashes to which the same bright sun had burnt up the tangled thicket of iniquitous dealing." These words lead us to consider the day of the world"s retribution.
I IT WILL BE A TERRIBLE DAY TO THE WICKED. "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." Primarily this may refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was indeed a time of judgment, but it points on through the whole period of retribution. Mark two things.
1. How this retributive period regards the wicked. They are "stubble;" without life, beauty, or value; utterly worthless. They may be wealthy, learned, influential; yet they are nothing but "stubble," destitute even of one grain of moral wheat.
2. How this retributive period will destroy the wicked.
(1) Painfully; by fire. They shall writhe in the scorching flames of moral remorse and awful forebodings.
(2) Completely. "Shall leave them neither root nor branch." To destroy them root and branch may not mean the extinction of their existence, hut the extinction of all that makes existence tolerable or worth having. This day of retributiun is really going on now, but it is only in dawn; the full noon is In the centuries to come.
II IT WILL BE A GLORIOUS PERIOD TO THE RIGHTEOUS. "But unto you that fear my Name shall the Bun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." This language may be regarded as indicating the blessedness of the world to a good man.
1. It is a world of solar brightness. "The Sun of Righteousness" arises on the horizon of his soul. There are souls that are lighted by sparks of their own kindling, and by the gaseous blaze springing from the bogs of inner depravity. All such lights, whether in the forms of philosophic theories or religious creeds, are dim, partial, transitory. The soul of a good man is lighted by the sun. The sun:
(1) Throws his beams over the whole heavens.
(2) Reveals all objects in their true aspects and proportions.
(3) Quickens all into life and beauty.
(4) Is the centre, holding the whole system in order.
The soul of the good man is lighted by something more than the brightest lights of human genius; something more, in fact, than moon and stars; lighted by the Sun himself, the Source of all light and warmth and life. Christ is the Light of the good.
2. It is a world of Divine rectitude. "Sun of Righteousness." "The kingdom of God is within you." Eternal right is enthroned. God"s will is the supreme law. The meat and drink of godly souls are to do the will of their Father who is in heaven. Such a soul is right:
(1) In relation to itself. All its powers, passions, and impulses are lightly adjusted.
(2) In relation to the universe. It renders to others what it would have that others should render unto it.
(3) In relation to God. The best Being it loves the most; the greatest Being it reverences the most; the kindest Being it thanks the most.
1. It is a world of remedial influence. "With healing in his wings." The sun"s beams are in Scripture called his wings. (Psa_139:9) The soul through sin is diseased, its eyes are dim, its ears are heavy, its limbs are feeble, its blood is poisoned. The godly is under remedial influences. The beams of the "Sun of Righteousness" work off the disease, repair the constitution, and enable it to run without being weary, and to walk without being faint. There is a proverb among the Jews that "as the sun riseth, infirmities decrease." The flowers which droop and languish all night revive in the morning. The late Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge, called upon a friend just as he had received a letter from his son, who was surgeon on a vessel then lying off Smyrna. The son mentioned in his letter that every morning about sunrise a fresh gale of air blew from the sea across the land, and from its wholesomeness and utility in cleansing the infected air the wind was called "the doctor." Christ is the Physician of souls.
2. It is a world of buoyant energy. "Ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." See the calf which from its birth has been shut up in the stall, let forth for the first time into the green fields of May, how full of buoyant energy! it leaps, and frolics, and frisks. This is the figure employed here to represent the gladsomeness with which the godly soul employs its faculties under the genial beams of the "Sun of Righteousness. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 All that do wickedly shall be stubble.
Mal_4:1
All that do wickedly shall be stubble.
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The destruction of the wicked
It is matter of alarm and profound regret that this awful doctrine is so seldom preached in these days, at least with plainness and fidelity. Why is it? Surely not because the doctrine is not expressly and fully taught in the Scriptures; not because it was not taught by Christ Himself during His ministry; nor because it has not always held a prominent place in the creeds of Christendom; nor yet because it is contrary to reason and the constitution of the moral universe. There is no hope for the finally impenitent. Application--
1. Since the everlasting punishment of the finally impenitent is clearly taught by Divine revelation, we are bound to accept it, reverently, submissively, and without criticism, however severe and terrible the aspect it wears toward the wicked.
2. Being an essential doctrine of the Scriptures, we are imperatively called upon to give it its due place and importance in the ministrations of the pulpit, The pulpit that dares to ignore it, or presumes to be more liberal and merciful than God in handling it, incurs a tremendous responsibility.
3. Christians are bound to have respect to it in all their prayers, and living, and intercourse with those who are unreconciled to God.
4. In view of a doom so certain, and so supremely dreadful to every unforgiven sinner, how earnestly should every man work out his salvation with fear and trembling! (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.] The ungodly admonished for the day] of…
CRITICAL NOTES.] The ungodly admonished for the day] of judgment. Results to the wicked awful. Burn] as an oven] or furnace (cf. Mat_6:30). “A fire burns more fiercely in a furnace than in the open air” [Hengs.]. The proud] called happy (ch. Mal_3:15), and all the wicked] like stubble] fit for fire: destroyed “root and branch,” i.e. utterly. 2]. To the righteous, the day an advent of justice and salvation. Sun] The Messiah set forth as most glorious and beneficent. What the sun is to the natural, he is to the moral world; the source of light, life, and beauty. Wings] i.e. beams, “on account of the velocity and expansion with which they spread over the earth” (cf. Psa_139:9) [Henderson]. Go forth] as from the prison of darkness and misery. Grow up] Lit. leap in joy and freedom, like calves let loose from the stall. “The simile is designed to convey the ideas of freedom from outward restraint and the enjoyment of self-conscious liberty” [Henderson].
Mal_4:3. Tread] The wicked, who were said to prosper, will be overcome: destroyed by the fire of judgment, they will lie like ashes on the ground. The condition of the godly reversed then.
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HOMILETICS
THE APPROACH OF THE JUDGMENT DAY.—Mal_4:1-5
The prophet confirms the preceding truth, awakens sinners in their slumber, and encourages saints in their faith by the prospect of a day of judgment: to punish some, reward others, and vindicate the ways of God.
I. A day of retribution to the wicked. To the ungodly “the day cometh that shall burn as an oven.” Those who are called blessed will then be cursed, and like stubble consumed by the fire.
1. Utter destruction. “It shall leave them neither root nor branch.” “There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again;” but if torn up by the roots there is no hope, no chance of life. So there will be no escape nor mitigation of punishment.
2. Universal destruction. “All the proud” and “all that do wickedly” will be unable to resist when God reveals his justice. That day will test every man’s character and condition. “Wood and hay will be consumed, gold and silver will abide and be purified. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it (lay it open) because it shall be revealed by fire (judgment); and the fire shall try (prove) every man’s work of what sort it is” (1Co_3:13).
II. A day of salvation to the godly. The day will be as an oven to the wicked, but a source of joy, a sun to the righteous. “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise.” The sceptical complained that judgment did not fall upon the ungodly, and that justice was not given to the godly. But health, light, and everlasting salvation are promised.
1. The light of life. Darkness and disease shall be scattered away; warmth and gladness shall shine in Divine effulgence “Thy sun shall no more go down, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light.”
2. The joy of freedom. “Ye shall go forth” from darkness and captivity; become free and active, frisky and playful “as calves of the stall.” This freshness of first love is only a foretaste of “the joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”
3. The conquest of foes. Not mere freedom from oppression, but complete triumph over enemies. The wicked often prosper and trample upon the godly; but a reversal shall come to both classes. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
III. A day of warning to all. “For, behold, the day cometh,” and lest any, even sinners, should be surprised, the trumpet-blast warns every one.
1. By teachers commissioned from God. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet.” Ministers and messengers announce the coming King, are sent to prepare the way, and call upon proud scoffers and wicked priests to heed the word.
2. By the written word of God. Prophecy and preaching may be temporary and uncertain, but the law of God is never suspended. The Scriptures warn and invite, encourage and threaten. If men forget the living voice, they must remember the written law.
3. By the corrective providences of God. Compassionate judgments come before the final judgment—providences which correct and do not destroy. God seeks to separate and purify men now, before the final separation and settlement, “to bring the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” Heed the warning now, lest you be smitten “with a curse” hereafter.
THE SUN OF RIGHTROUSNESS.—Mal_4:2
There can be no doubt with respect to the application. Our Lord is elsewhere called Light, which in Hebrew poetry is used of the sun, as the source of light. What the sun is to the natural world, that the Messiah is to the moral. The invaluable spiritual blessings which he dispenses are all comprehended under the two heads here specified—righteousness and moral health (cf. Isa_57:19). Both of these are indispensably requisite to the happiness of our guilty and depraved race, and from no other quarter can they be obtained than from him “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” [Henderson]. In this image we have many truths suggested.
1. Christ is the source of light. Whatever be the radiance of other lights, they borrow from him. The moon in her beauty and the stars in their brilliance only shed reflected lustre upon the world. Amid ignorance, error, and sin, he is the light of truth, holiness, and God, in person, doctrine, and work. “I am the light of the world.”
II. Christ is the source of life. “With healing in his wings.” Sin brought death into the world. Christ quickens the dead in trespasses and sins. As the sun in spring rouses dormant energies of nature, and clothes trees and fields with beauty, so Christ is the essential principle and primal source of spiritual life. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
III. Christ is the source of beauty. To the sun we owe the bright colours which delight our eyes, and the golden beams which gladden our hearts. He tints the sky, paints the flowers, and adorns all nature. Beauty “is the fringe of the garment of God.” Christ blesses the soul and beautifies the life with purity and praise. His grace removes moral deformity, and prepares for eternal perfection.
IV. Christ is the source of joy. When the sun bursts through the clouds, and pours floods of light over the earth, the birds begin to sing, and children shout for joy. It smiles upon the cottage of the poor, cheers and brings new life to the fainting heart. Joy in Christ may be overcast, but will break out again with greater sweetness and splendour. “And as the morning light he shall arise—a sun” (2Sa_23:4).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Mal_4:1. The oven, the fuel, the intensity of the heat. The throne (of the Ancient of days) was a fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.
Mal_4:2. Sun of righteousness.
1. As asserting and vindicating the righteousness of God, called in question by blasphemers.
2. As bestowing upon his people a double righteousness (imputed and imparted), as the sun doth light (Joh_1:16). It is further said that he shall arise, that is, he shall appear and show himself on earth, who now lieth hid, as it were, in heaven, as the material sun doth under the horizon.
1. He was manifest in the flesh, out of the bosom of the Father, out of the types of the law.
2. In the whole course of his life he enlightened and warmed the dark and dry hearts of men, and filled them with fruits of righteousness (Joh_15:5).
3. He is still in continual motion for the good of the Church, as the sun in heaven for the good of the world. Under a cloud in his passion, he broke forth again in his resurrection. From heaven he daily darts forth his beams of righteousness, and showers down all spiritual blessings in heavenly privileges (Eph_1:3). Lastly, at the great day he will show himself in a special manner a “Sun of righteousness;” clearing all obscurities, bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, causing his people’s most holy faith, that now lies hid in great part, to be found to praise, honour, and glory, cheering up their spirits after manifold tribulations, and healing all their spiritual maladies [Trapp].
Healing in his wings.
1. Moral sickness of men.
2. Christ the great Physician.
3. Faith the method of cure. Trust, rest under his wings, for shelter and salvation.
Go forth and grow up as calves. The figure sets forth—
1. Slavery.
2. Freedom.
3. Activity.
4. Growth.
5. Joy. “Grow up; more probably bound, as the animal which has been confined exults in its regained freedom, itself full of life and exuberance of delight” [Pusey]. They were before in darkness and disease, both of which confine. But the Sun of righteousness arises, health is restored, they become free and active. They go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. No creatures, perhaps, increase so rapidly and observedly as these, when, as here, they are well attended and fed, for the very purpose of fattening [Jay].
Mal_4:3. The great reversal. The wicked overcome, trampled upon as ashes. Victory visible and complete to the saints (Mic_4:12-13; Joe_3:14; Rom_16:20).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Mal_4:1. Proud. Heaven often regulates effects by their causes, and pays the wicked what they have deserved [Corneille].
Mal_4:2. Sun. The self-same sun that shines upon his court hides not his visage from our cottage, but looks on both alike [Shakespeare].
“O sun! of this great world both eye and soul” [Milton].
Mal_4:4. Law. Prize the word of God by the worth of it, that you may not come to prize it by the want of it [Dyer]. There never was found, in any age of the world, either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good as the Bible [Bacon]. Remember. Memory, like books which remain a long time shut up in the dust, needs to be opened from time to time; it is necessary, so to speak, to open its leaves, that it may be ready in time of need [Seneca].
Mal_4:5. Elijah. Since the days that John began to preach, since he began to call the world to repentance, there has been a rush into the kingdom of God. Men, roused from their spiritual slumbers, startled by a sense of their own sin and ruin, have earnestly applied for pardon and salvation. The echo of the words he proclaimed on the Jordan still lingers and rings in the souls of men, and the result is a pressing every day into the empire of redemptive truth [Dr. Thomas].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 There are three reasons why Christ has received this…
Mal 4:2
There are three reasons why Christ has received this name, "The Sun of Righteousness."
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I. He gives Light. He lived in the world and was the Sun of the world. The great and wise of every land—poets, philosophers, inventors, teachers—may be compared to the stars, but He alone is the Sun. Why? Because He brought knowledge to us infinitely greater and more precious than all other knowledge besides. He made God manifest to men. He revealed the means of saving the soul from death. He discovered to men a new world—the better land above the stars.
II. He gives Life. He is the life of the soul. Sin is its death. Sin is like the frost which withers and desolates the land. But Christ is like the summer sun that drives the cold away, and restores life and beauty to the dead earth. He releases our souls from the mortal hold of sin, and bids them live.
III. He gives Joy. Darkness has always been the symbol of sorrow, and sunshine of joy. Christ is the Sun of the soul, because He fills it with joy. There is no joy in the world like that which Christ gives. How does Christ give joy? It is by giving love and by giving salvation. Not only does He shine on those who love Him in this world, but He stands in the zenith of the better world and floods it for evermore with joy.
J. Stalker, The New Song, p. 105.
References: Mal 4:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1020; vol. xxv., No. 1463; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 390; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 217; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 88; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 360.
Mal 4:4-5
Notice:—
I. Some points of resemblance between Moses and Elijah in their respective histories. (1) Moses and Elijah were both witnesses for God in a wicked age. They were confessors in their generation. (2) They were both summoned to a mountain, and there conversed with God. (3) Both of these prophets were endued with power to sustain an extraordinary fast of forty days; herein prefiguring the fast of our Blessed Lord in the wilderness. (4) Their miracles of power resembled one another. (5) In the manner of their departure from the world, there were points of resemblance. They were both forewarned of their departure; they were found of God in the midst of their work, and heard His call and went on their way till they were taken by Him; and after their translation their bodies could nowhere be found.
II. Why did Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain beside the Lord? The obvious answer will be, that the Law and the Prophets, as represented respectively by them, might witness to the Gospel. The law, in itself so good, may become a dead letter; and if it be revived by the Prophets, it cannot convey life. Our nature needs a living Saviour, ever living, ever present; not a Law to obey, nor a Prophet to hear, but a living person to fear, to love, to worship, in whom, it may lose itself, and crown itself with His own glory.
III. But to conclude with a few remarks on the practical influence of this scene upon ourselves. Perhaps the thought of heaven is the point of highest light in our hearts; but after all is it more than a point? The details of this life are almost infinite. How small in proportion is the space filled up by the thought of the life to come! Look at Moses on the mount. His life on earth was long and varied. And his apparition with Christ in glory, how short it was, how briefly told, a point of high light indeed, but only a point. And yet as every heart will own, that moment with his Lord in glory, comprised all his life. So will it be with you. Your life on earth seems long, and all its cares and interests a great matter. Nevertheless, you are really nothing, but what you are in God; in a sense far more profound than most of us feel, when we lightly use the words, "In Him we live and move and have our being."
C. W. Furse, Sermons Preached at Richmond, p. 189; see also Anglican Pulpit Today, p. 72; C. Kingsley, Sermons for the Times, p. 1.
References: Mal 4:5.—G. Moberly, Brightstone Sermons, p. 244. Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6.—J. Fraser, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 401.
Mal 4:6
(Rev 22:21)
It is, of course, only an accident that these words close the Old and the New Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible Malachi’s prophecies do not stand at the end; but he was the last of the Old Testament prophets, and after him, there were "four centuries of silence." I venture, then, to look at these significant closing words of the two Testaments as conveying the spirit of each, and suggesting some thoughts about the contrast and the harmony and the order that subsist between them.
I. Notice, the apparent contrast and the real harmony and unity of these two texts. In the first text we have distinctly gathered up the spirit of millenniums of Divine revelation, all of which declare this one thing—that, as certainly as there is a God, every transgression and disobedience receives, and must receive, its just recompense of reward. And then turn to the other, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." What has become of the thunder? All melted into dewy rain of love and pity and compassion. The Apostolic benediction is the declaration of the Divine purpose, and the inmost heart and loftiest meaning of all the words which, from the beginning, God hath spoken is that His condescending, pardoning, self-bestowing mercy, may fall upon all hearts, and gladden every soul. So there seems to emerge, and there is, a very real significant contrast. But beneath the contrast there is a real harmony, for nowhere are there more tender utterances and sweeter revelations of a Divine mercy than in that ancient Law with its attendant prophets. And nowhere, through all the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, are there such solemn words of retribution as dropped from the lips of the Incarnate Love.
II. Notice the relation of the grace to the punishment. (1) Is it not love which proclaims judgment? Are not the words of my first text, if you take them all, merciful, however they wear a surface of threatening? "Lest I come." He speaks that He may not come, and declares the issue of sin in order that that issue may never need to be experienced by us that listen to Him. (2) The grace is manifested in bearing punishment and in bearing it away by bearing it.
III. Notice the alternative which these texts open for us. You must have either the destruction or the grace. And, more wonderful still, the same coming of the same Lord will be—to one man the destruction, and to another the manifestion and reception of His perfect grace.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Nov. 25th, 1886.
Reference: Mal 4:6.—W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 243.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:18; Mal 4:1 - Mal…
Malachi
‘STOUT WORDS,’ AND THEIR CONFUTATION
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Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:18; Mal 4:1 - Mal 4:6.
This passage falls into three parts,-the ‘stout words’ against God which the Prophet sets himself to confute {Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:15}; the prophecy of the day which will show their falsehood {Mal 3:16 - Mal 4:3}; and the closing exhortation and prediction {Mal 4:4 - Mal 4:6}.
I. The returning exiles had not had the prosperity which they had hoped.
So many of them, even of those who had served God, began to let doubts darken their trust, and to listen to the whispers of their own hearts, reinforced by the mutterings of others, and to ask: ‘What is the use of religion? Does it make any difference to a man’s condition?’ Here had they been keeping God’s charge, and going in black garments ‘before the Lord,’ in token of penitence, and no good had come to them, while arrogant neglect of His commandments did not seem to hinder happiness, and ‘they that work wickedness are built up.’ Sinful lives appeared to have a firm foundation, and to rise high and palace-like, while righteous ones were like huts. Goodness seemed to spell ruin.
What was wrong in these ‘stout words’? It was wrong to attach such worth to external acts of devotion, as if these were deserving of reward. It was wrong to suspend the duty of worship on the prosperity resulting from it, and to seek ‘profit’ from ‘keeping his charge.’ Such religion was shallow and selfish, and had the evils of the later Pharisaism in germ in it. It was wrong to yield to the doubts which the apparently unequal distribution of worldly prosperity stirred in their hearts. But the doubts themselves were almost certain to press on Old Testament believers, as well as on Old Testament scoffers, especially under the circumstances of Malachi’s time. The fuller light of Christianity has eased their pressure, but not removed it, and we have all had to face them, both when our own hearts have ached with sorrow and when pondering on the perplexities of this confused world. We look around, and, like the psalmist, see ‘the prosperity of the wicked,’ and, like him, have to confess that our ‘steps had wellnigh slipped’ at the sight. The old, old question is ever starting up. ‘Doth God know?’ The mystery of suffering and the mystery of its distribution, the apparent utter want of connection between righteousness and well-being, are still formidable difficulties in the way of believing in a loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God, and are stock arguments of the unbeliever and perplexities of humble faith. Never to have felt the force of the difficulty is not so much the sign of steadfast faith as of scant reflection. To yield to it, and still more, to let it drive us to cast religion aside, is not merely folly, but sin. So thinks Malachi.
II. To the stout words of the doubters is opposed the conversation of the godly.
‘Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another,’ nourishing their faith by believing speech with like-minded. The more the truths by which we believe are contradicted, the more should we commune with fellow-believers. Attempts to rob us should make us hold our treasure the faster. Bold avowal of the faith is especially called for when many potent voices deny it. And, whoever does not hear, God hears. Faithful words may seem lost, but they and every faithful act are written in His remembrance and will be recompensed one day. If our names and acts are written there, we may well be content to accept scanty measures of earthly good, and not be ‘envious of the foolish’ in their prosperity.
Malachi’s answer to the doubters leaves all other considerations which might remove the difficulty unmentioned, and fixes on the one, the prophecy of a future which will show that it is not all the same whether a man is good or bad. It was said of an English statesman that he called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old, and that is what the Prophet does. Christianity has taught us many other ways of meeting the doubters’ difficulty, but the sheet anchor of faith in that storm is the unconquerable assurance that a day comes when the righteousness of providence will be vindicated, and the eternal difference between good and evil manifested in the fates of men. The Prophet is declaring what will be a fact one day, but he does not know when. Probably he never asked himself whether ‘the day of the Lord’ was near or far off, to dawn on earth or to lie beyond mortal life. But this he knew-that God was righteous, and that sometime and somewhere character would settle destiny, and even outwardly it would be good to be good. He first declares this conviction in general terms, and then passes on to a magnificent and terrible picture of that great day.
The promise, which lay at the foundation of Israel’s national existence, included the recognition of it as ‘a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people,’ and Malachi looks forward to that day as the epoch when God will show by His acts how precious the righteous are in His sight. Not the whole Israel, but the righteous among them, are the heirs of the old promise. It is an anticipation of the teaching that ‘they are not all Israel which are of Israel,’ And it bids us look for the fulfilment of every promise of God’s to that great day of the Lord which lies still before us all, when the gulf between the righteous and the wicked shall be solemnly visible, wide, and profound. There have been many ‘days which I make’ in the world’s history, and in a measure each of them has re-established the apparently tottering truth that there is a God who judgeth in the earth, but the day of days is yet to come.
No grander vision of judgment exists than Malachi’s picture of ‘the day,’ lurid, on the one hand, with the fierce flame, before which the wicked are as stubble that crackles for a moment and then is grey ashes, or as a tree in a forest fire, which stands for a little while, a pillar of flame, and then falls with a crash, shaking the woods; and on the otherhand, radiant with the early beams of healing sunshine, in whose sweet morning light the cattle, let out from their pent-up stalls, gambol in glee. But let us not forget while we admire the noble poetry of its form that this is God’s oracle, nor that we have each to settle for ourselves whether that day shall be for us a furnace to destroy or a sun to cheer and enlighten.
We can only note in a sentence the recurrence in Mal 4:1 of the phrases ‘the proud’ and they ‘that work wickedness,’ from Mal 3:15 The end of those whom the world called happy, and who seemed stable and elevated, is to be as stubble before the fire. We must also point out that ‘the sun of righteousness’ means the sun which is righteousness, and is not a designation of the Messiah. Nor can we dwell on the picture of the righteous treading down the wicked, which seems to prolong the previous metaphor of the leaping young cattle. Then shall ‘the upright have dominion over them in the morning.’
III. The final exhortation and promise point backwards and forwards, summing up duty in obedience to the law, and fixing hope on a future reappearance of the leader of the prophets.
Moses and Elijah are the two giant figures which dominate the history of Israel. Law and prophecy are the two forms in which God spoke to the fathers. The former is of perpetual obligation, the latter will flash up again in power on the threshold of the day. Jesus has interpreted this closing word for us. John came ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah,’ and the purpose of his coming was to ‘turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’ {Luk 1:16 - Luk 1:17}; that is, to bring back the devout dispositions of the patriarchs to the existing generations, and so to bring the ‘hearts of the children to their fathers,’ as united with them in devout obedience. If John’s mission had succeeded, the ‘curse’ which smote Israel would have been stayed. God has done all that He can do to keep us from being consumed by the fire of that day. The Incarnation, Life, and Death of Jesus Christ made a day of the Lord which has the twofold character of that in Malachi’s vision, for He is a ‘saviour of life unto life’ or ‘of death unto death,’ and must be one or other to us. But another day of the Lord is still to come, and for each of us it will come burning as a furnace or bright as sunrise. Then the universe shall ‘discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The New Elijah
4
The New Elijah
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1. The comparison is to an oven heated by a fire lighted within it: cp. Mat_6:30. This passage is closely connected with the preceding. Stubble] rather, 'straw.'
2. 'The day of the Lord is darkness and not light' (Amo_5:20), but when the night of judgment is over, day dawns for the righteous.
The Sun of righteousness] 'Righteousness' is here almost equivalent to 'blessing,' as in Psa_24:5.
With healing in his wings] Since the dawn spreads with rapidity from the E. over the world (Job_38:12-14), it is said poetically to have wings (Psa_139:9). With the dawn of the new era there will be healing. It will be a 'time of restoration of all things.' Grow up (RV 'gambol') as calves of the stall] better, 'trample down like stall-fed oxen,' i.e. the most heavily treading animals with which Malachi was acquainted. 3. The men of Malachi's generation have not yet been taught to pray for those that despitefully use them and persecute them. They shall be ashes] i.e. the righteous shall trample on the ungodly as on the ash-heaps outside their homes.
5. The history of Israel has already, to a great extent, become Scripture, and Elijah is a type for all time. Malachi's meaning would be clearer if we were to translate, with a slight concession to English idiom, 'I will send you a prophet Elijah': cp. 'a Daniel come to judgment.' It is in this sense that our Lord understood it: cp. Mat_11:14; Mat_17:11-12, and also Luk_1:17. The fact that our Lord declared John the Baptist to be a fulfilment of this prophecy would alone be sufficient to entitle Malachi to a place among the goodly fellowship of the prophets. But Malachi's claim to Christian reverence is not exhausted by this one fulfilment of his words. Though John the Baptist was the last and greatest Elijah before that great 'Day of the Lord,' when 'the Word was made flesh,' there had been other fulfilments of Malachi's words before his time, as there have been since. Whenever 'the old order changes, giving place to new,' God sends the world an Elijah. The Old Testament is not made obsolete by the New, for the gospel is the continuation and the interpretation of prophecy.
6. A time of reform is a time of dissension: cp. Luk_12:51-53. The dissensions can only be healed by giving heed to God's teaching.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Summary of the O.T. revelation of Deity: God is…
God
Summary of the O.T. revelation of Deity: God is revealed in the O.T. (1) through His names, as follows: ClassEnglish FormHebrew EquivalentPrimaryGodEl, Elah, or Elohim (Gen 1:1)LORDJehovah (Gen 2:4)LordAdon or Adonai (Gen 15:2)Compound (with El = God)Almighty GodEl Shaddai (Gen 17:1)Most High, or most high GodEl Elyon (Gen 14:18)everlasting GodEl Olam (Gen 21:33)Compound (with Jehovah = Lord)LORD GodJehovah Elohim (Gen 2:4)Lord GODAdonai Jehovah (Gen 15:2)LORD of hostsJehovah Sabaoth (1Sa 1:3)
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The trinity is suggested by the three times repeated groups of threes. This is not an arbitrary arrangement, but inheres in the O.T. itself.
This revelation of God by His name is invariably made in connection with some particular need of His people, and there can be no need of man to which these names do not answer as showing that man’s true resource is in God. Even human failure and sin but evoke new and fuller revelations of the divine fulness.
(2) The O.T. Scriptures reveal the existence of a Supreme Being, the Creator of the universe and of man, the Source of all life and of all intelligence, who is to be worshipped and served by men and angels. This Supreme Being is One, but, in some sense not fully revealed in the O.T., is a unity in plurality. This is shown by the plural name, Elohim, by the use of the plural pronoun in the interrelation of deity as evidenced in Gen 1:26; Gen 3:22; Psa 110:1; Isa 6:8. That this plurality is really a Trinity is intimated in the three primary names of Deity, and in the threefold ascription of the Seraphim in Isa 6:3 That the interrelation of Deity is that of Father and Son is directly asserted; Psa 2:7; Heb 1:5 and the Spirit is distinctly recognized in His personality, and to Him are ascribed all the divine attributes (e.g.; Gen 1:2; Num 11:25; Num 24:2; Jdg 3:10; Jdg 6:34; Jdg 11:29; Jdg 13:25; Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 15:14; 2Sa 23:2; Job 26:13; Job 33:4; Psa 106:33; Psa 139:7; Isa 40:7; Isa 59:19; Isa 63:10. (See Scofield "Mal 2:15").
(3) The future incarnation is intimated in the theophanies, or appearances of God in human form (e.g. Gen 18:1; Gen 18:13; Gen 18:17-22; Gen 32:24-30 and distinctly predicted in the promises connected with redemption (e.g. Gen 3:15 and with the Davidic Covenant Isa 7:13-14; Isa 9:6-7; Jer 23:5; Jer 23:6.
The revelation of Deity in the N.T. so illuminates that of the O.T. that the latter is seen to be, from Genesis to Malachi, the foreshadowing of the coming incarnation of God in Jesus the Christ. In promise, covenant, type, and prophecy the O.T. points forward to Him.
(4) The revelation of God to man is one of authority and redemption. He requires righteousness from man, but saves the unrighteous through sacrifice; and in His redemptive dealings with man all the divine persons and attributes are brought into manifestation. The O.T. reveals the justice of God equally with His mercy, but never in opposition to His mercy. The flood, e.g., was an unspeakable mercy to unborn generations. From Genesis to Malachi He is revealed as the seeking God who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and who heaps up before the sinner every possible motive to persuade to faith and obedience.
(5) In the experience of the O.T. men of faith their God inspires reverence but never slavish fear; and they exhaust the resources of language to express their love and adoration in view of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. This adoring love of His saints is the triumphant answer to those who pretend to find the O.T. revelation of God cruel and repellent. It is in harmony, not contrast, with the N.T. revelation of God in Christ.
(6) Those passages which attribute to God bodily parts and human emotions (e.g. Exo 33:11; Exo 33:20; Deu 29:20; 2Ch 16:9; Gen 6:6; Gen 6:7; Jer 15:6) are metaphorical and mean that in the infinite being of God exists that which answers to these things--eyes, a hand, feet, etc.; and the jealousy and anger attributed to Him are the emotions of perfect Love in view of the havoc of sin.
(7) In the O.T. revelation there is a true sense in which, wholly apart from sin or infirmity, God is like His creature man Gen 1:27 and the supreme and perfect revelation of God, toward which the O.T. points, is a revelation in and through a perfect Man.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Sun of Righteousness and His Forerunner.
The Sun of Righteousness and His Forerunner.
The prophet, having addressed the scoffers in words of warning, in conclusion describes the results of the Lord’s appointing that day of which He had spoken.
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v. 1. For, behold, the day cometh, the entire New Testament period being considered a day of sifting and of judgment, because it culminates in the Day of Judgment, that shall burn as an oven, one which holds the refiner’s fire; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, under the fire of His wrath, Cf Mat 3:10-12; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, Cf Isa 5:24; Zep 1:18, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch, the final, eternal destruction of the wicked being coincidental with the last Judgment. Such is the terrible fate of those who do not avail themselves of the Lord’s mercy.
v. 2. But unto you that fear My name, those who believe in Jehovah, the God of the covenant, and His redemption, shall the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah, with the fullness of His salvation, arise with healing in His wings, in the rays of His mercy sent out through His Word; and ye shall go forth, with joyfully uplifted heads, and grow up as calves of the stall, nourished by the Word of Truth and Grace. Cf Joh 1:14.
v. 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked, whose final overthrow is consistently prophesied in Scripture; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, powerless and worthless, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. All believers are happy in their faith, in the enjoyment of Jehovah’s mercy; they enjoy true liberty and will finally celebrate an eternal victory over all their enemies. The prophet therefore, in concluding his message, adds an admonition:
v. 4. Remember ye the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded unto him In Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments, the Word which contained His solemn covenant.
v. 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, a prophet like him, namely, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, Mat 11:10-14; Mat 17:10-13; Luk 1:17, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Joe 2:31, namely, before the Lord Himself would begin His ministry, which ushered in the period of the New Testament, culminating in the Last Judgment;
v. 6. and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, in having them both realize the love of Jehovah in sending the Messiah and in the subsequent salvation wrought for all men, Luk 1:17, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse, namely, in the event that men will not heed the preaching of repentance unto the forgiveness of sins. The Jews as a nation rejected the Messiah and have come under the curse. But this did not result in the overthrow of the kingdom of God and Christ. The spiritual Israel, rather, has heeded, and is heeding, the Word of Grace and is enjoying the fullness of the blessings promised throughout the Old Testament and so gloriously fulfilled in the New Dispensation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 "look" or "listen" or "pay attention to what I…
see
"look" or "listen" or "pay attention to what I am about to tell you"
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the day is coming, burning like a furnace
The disaster occurring at this time is spoken of as if the day itself were burning. God's judgment is often spoken of as if it were a fire. (See: Metaphor)
arrogant ... evildoers
See how you translated these wordsd in Malachi 3:15.
all the arrogant and all the evildoers will become stubble
These people are spoken of as if they will become dried-up plants fit only for being burned. It is common for the Bible to speak of people as if they were plants or trees. AT: "all the arrogant and all the evildoers will burn up like dry plants" (See: Metaphor)
The day that is coming will burn them up
Here "the day" stands for the events that will occur on that day. AT: "On that day I will burn them up" (See: Metonymy)
it will leave them neither root nor branch
This expression continues to speak of people as if they were plants or trees. So being deprived of all roots and branches stands for being completely killed off. AT: "nothing will be left" (See: Merism and Metaphor)
you who fear my name
Here "my name" stands for Yahweh himself. (See: Metonymy)
the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings
This can mean 1) Yahweh, who always acts righteously, will come and heal his people on that day or 2) on that day Yahweh will reveal the people's righteousness and heal them.
healing in its wings
Possible meanings are 1) the act of healing someone is spoken of as if it were an object that the sun carried to people by means of its wings or 2) the healing takes place under the wings, that is, in the security God gives his people. (See: Abstract Nouns and Metaphor)
wings
It was common in the Ancient Near East to speak of the sun as if it had wings, with which it moved across the sky. Possible meanings are 1) the sun's life-giving rays of light are spoken of as if they were its wings or 2) the wings are said to cover God's people so as to give them peace and safey. (See: Metaphor)
You will go out, and you will leap like calves from the stall
Here the redeemed people of Yahweh are spoken of as if they were young bulls released from their stalls, allowed to go out into their pasture. (See: Simile)
you will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet
Here the victory of God's people is spoken of as if they were walking over the burned bodies of their enemies. (See: Metaphor)
they will be ashes
The Israelites' enemies are spoken of as having been burned to ashes. (See: Malachi 4:01)
translationWords
proud
Yahweh of hosts
fear
name
righteous
cure
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 4:1-3 This message shifts away from the disputation format,…
4:1-3 This message shifts away from the disputation format, directly warning the people that repentance is the only proper response to the Lord’s message because God’s judgment is inescapable.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.