---
title: "Malachi 3 - Study King James Bible with commentary critical and explanatory on the whole bible"
description: "Read Malachi 3 with commentary critical and explanatory on the whole bible commentary. 1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messen"
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[ Read](/kjv/malachi/3)[ Commentary](/study/malachi/3)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/malachi/3) Audio

 1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he *is* like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

 3 And he shall sit *as* a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.*

 5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in *his* wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger *from his right*, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.*

 6 For I *am* the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

 7 ¶ Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept *them*. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

 8 ¶ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

 9 Ye *are* cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, *even* this whole nation.

 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that *there shall* not *be room* enough *to receive it*.*

 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.*

 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

 13 ¶ Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken *so much* against thee?

 14 Ye have said, It *is* vain to serve God: and what profit *is it* that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?**

 15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, *they that* tempt God are even delivered.*

 16 ¶ Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard *it*, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

 17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.*

 18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
 
[Malachi 2](/study/malachi/2) [Malachi 4](/study/malachi/4)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
**1. Behold**—Calling especial
attention to the momentous truths which follow. Ye unbelievingly ask,
Where is the God of judgment ( :-)? "Behold," therefore, "I send," c. Your
unbelief will not prevent My keeping My covenant, and bringing to
pass in due time that which ye say will never be fulfilled. 

**I will*****send*****. . . he shall*****come*******—The Father *sends*
the Son: the Son *comes.* Proving the distinctness of
personality between the Father and the Son. 

**my messenger**—John the
Baptist as [Matthew 3:3](/kjv/matthew/3/3); [Matthew 11:10](/kjv/matthew/11/10);
[Mark 1:2](/kjv/mark/1/2); [Mark 1:3](/kjv/mark/1/3);
[Luke 1:76](/kjv/luke/1/76); [Luke 3:4](/kjv/luke/3/4);
[Luke 7:26](/kjv/luke/7/26); [Luke 7:27](/kjv/luke/7/27);
[John 1:23](/kjv/john/1/23), prove. This passage of
Malachi evidently rests on that of Isaiah his predecessor ([John 1:23](/kjv/john/1/23)- :). Perhaps also, as HENGSTENBERG
thinks, "messenger" includes *the long line of prophets*
headed by *Elijah* (whence his name is put in [John 1:23](/kjv/john/1/23)- : as a representative name), and terminating in John, the last
and greatest of the prophets ([John 1:23](/kjv/john/1/23)- :). John as the representative prophet (the forerunner of
Messiah the representative God-man) gathered in himself all the
scattered lineaments of previous prophecy (hence Christ terms him
"much more than a prophet," [John 1:23](/kjv/john/1/23)- :), reproducing all its awful and yet inspiriting utterances:
his coarse garb, like that of the old prophets, being a visible
exhortation to repentance; the wilderness in which he preached
symbolizing the lifeless, barren state of the Jews at that time,
politically and spiritually; his topics sin, repentance, and
salvation, presenting for the last time the condensed epitome of all
previous teachings of God by His prophets; so that he is called
pre-eminently God's "messenger." Hence the oldest and true
reading of [Mark 1:2](/kjv/mark/1/2) is, "as
it is written in *Isaiah* the prophet"; the difficulty of
which is, How can the prophecy of Malachi be referred to Isaiah? The
explanation is: the passage in Malachi rests on that in [Mark 1:2](/kjv/mark/1/2)- :, and therefore the *original source* of the prophecy is
referred to in order to mark this dependency and connection. 

**the Lord**—*Ha-Adon*
in *Hebrew.* The article marks that it is JEHOVAH
([Exodus 23:17](/kjv/exodus/23/17); [Exodus 34:23](/kjv/exodus/34/23);
compare [Joshua 3:11](/kjv/joshua/3/11); [Joshua 3:13](/kjv/joshua/3/13)).
Compare [Daniel 9:17](/kjv/daniel/9/17), where the
Divine Son is meant by "for THE
*Lord's* sake." God the speaker makes "the Lord,"
the "messenger of the covenant," one with Himself. "I
will send . . . before Me," adding, "THE
LORD . . . shall . . .
come"; so that "*the Lord*" must be one with the
"Me," that is, He must be GOD,
"before" whom John was *sent.* As the divinity of the
Son and His oneness with the Father are thus proved, so the
distinctness of personality is proved by "I send" and He
"shall come," as distinguished from one another. He also
comes to the temple as "His temple": marking His divine
lordship *over* it, as contrasted with all creatures, who are
but "servants *in*" it ([Haggai 2:7](/kjv/haggai/2/7);
[Hebrews 3:2](/kjv/hebrews/3/2); [Hebrews 3:5](/kjv/hebrews/3/5);
[Hebrews 3:6](/kjv/hebrews/3/6)). 

**whom ye seek . . . whom ye
delight in**—(see on [Malachi 2:17](/kjv/malachi/2/17)).
At His first coming they "sought" and "delighted in"
the hope of a *temporal* Saviour: not in what He then was. In
the case of those whom Malachi in his time addresses, "whom ye
seek . . . delight in," is ironical. They unbelievingly asked,
When will He come at last? [Malachi 2:17](/kjv/malachi/2/17)- :, "Where is the God of judgment" ([Isaiah 5:19](/kjv/isaiah/5/19);
[Amos 5:18](/kjv/amos/5/18); [2 Peter 3:3](/kjv/2-peter/3/3);
[2 Peter 3:4](/kjv/2-peter/3/4))? In the case of the
godly, the desire for Messiah was sincere ([Luke 2:25](/kjv/luke/2/25);
[Luke 2:28](/kjv/luke/2/28)). He is called "Angel
of God's presence" ([Isaiah 63:9](/kjv/isaiah/63/9)),
also Angel of Jehovah. Compare His appearances to Abraham ([Genesis 18:1](/kjv/genesis/18/1);
[Genesis 18:2](/kjv/genesis/18/2); [Genesis 18:17](/kjv/genesis/18/17);
[Genesis 18:33](/kjv/genesis/18/33)), to Jacob ([Genesis 31:11](/kjv/genesis/31/11);
[Genesis 48:15](/kjv/genesis/48/15); [Genesis 48:16](/kjv/genesis/48/16)),
to Moses in the bush ([Genesis 48:16](/kjv/genesis/48/16)- :); He went before Israel as the Shekinah ([Genesis 48:16](/kjv/genesis/48/16)- :), and delivered the law at Sinai ([Genesis 48:16](/kjv/genesis/48/16)- :). 

**suddenly**—This epithet
marks the second coming, rather than the first; the earnest of that
unexpected coming ([Luke 12:38-46](/kjv/luke/12/38-46);
[Revelation 16:15](/kjv/revelation/16/15)) to judgment was given
in the judicial expulsion of the money-changing profaners from the
temple by Messiah ([Matthew 21:12](/kjv/matthew/21/12);
[Matthew 21:13](/kjv/matthew/21/13)), where also as here He
calls the temple *His temple.* Also in the destruction of
Jerusalem, most unexpected by the Jews, who to the last deceived
themselves with the expectation that Messiah would suddenly appear as
a temporal Saviour. Compare the use of "suddenly" in [Matthew 21:13](/kjv/matthew/21/13)- :, where He appeared in wrath. 

**messenger of the
covenant**—namely, of the ancient covenant with Israel ([Matthew 21:13](/kjv/matthew/21/13)- :) and Abraham, in which the promise to the Gentiles is
ultimately included ([Galatians 4:16](/kjv/galatians/4/16);
[Galatians 4:17](/kjv/galatians/4/17)). The gospel at the
first advent began with Israel, then embraced the Gentile world: so
also it shall be at the second advent. All the manifestations of God
in the Old Testament, the Shekinah and human appearances, were made
in the person of the Divine Son ([Exodus 23:20](/kjv/exodus/23/20);
[Exodus 23:21](/kjv/exodus/23/21); [Hebrews 11:26](/kjv/hebrews/11/26);
[Hebrews 12:26](/kjv/hebrews/12/26)). He was the messenger
of the old covenant, as well as of the new.

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