--- title: "Malachi 3 - Study King James Bible with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary" description: "Read Malachi 3 with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary 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" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/keil-and-delitzsch-old-testament-commentary/malachi/3" --- [ 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 Coming of the Lord to judgment. [Malachi 3:1](/kjv/malachi/3/1). *“Behold, I send my messenger, that he may prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant, whom ye desire; behold he comes, saith Jehovah of hosts.”* To the question, Where is or remains the God of judgment? the Lord Himself replies that He will suddenly come to His temple, but that before His coming He will send a messenger to prepare the way for Him. The announcement of this messenger rests upon the prophecy in [Isaiah 40:3](/kjv/isaiah/40/3)., as the expression וּפנּה דרך , which is borrowed from that passage, clearly shows. The person whose voice Isaiah heard calling to make the way of Jehovah in the desert, that the glory of the Lord might be revealed to all flesh, is here described as מלאך , whom Jehovah will send before Him, i.e., before His coming. This *mal e âkh* is not a heavenly messenger, or spiritual being (Rashi, Kimchi), nor the angel of Jehovah κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν , who is mentioned afterwards and called *mal e akh habb e rı̄th*, but an earthly messenger of the Lord, and indeed the same who is called the prophet Elijah in [Malachi 4:5](/kjv/malachi/4/5), and therefore not “an ideal person, viz., the whole choir of divine messengers, who are to prepare the way for the coming of salvation, and open the door for the future grace” (Hengst.), but a concrete personality - a messenger who was really sent to the nation in John the Baptist immediately before the coming of the Lord. The idea view is precluded not only by the historical fact, that not a single prophet arose in Israel during the whole period between Malachi and John, but also by the context of the passage before us, according to which the sending of the messenger was to take place immediately before the coming of the Lord to His temple. It is true that in [Malachi 2:7](/kjv/malachi/2/7) the priest is also called a messenger of Jehovah; but the expression הנני שׁלח (behold I send) prevents our understanding the term *mal e âkh* as referring to the priests, or even as including them, inasmuch as “sending” would not apply to the priests as the standing mediators between the Lord and His people. Moreover, it was because the priests did not fulfil their duty as the ordinary ambassadors of God that the Lord was about to send an extraordinary messenger. Preparing the way ( פּנה דרך , an expression peculiar to Isaiah: compare [Isaiah 40:3](/kjv/isaiah/40/3); also, [Isaiah 57:14](/kjv/isaiah/57/14) and [Isaiah 62:10](/kjv/isaiah/62/10)), by clearing away the impediments lying in the road, denotes the removal of all that retards the coming of the Lord to His people, i.e., the taking away of enmity to God and of ungodliness by the preaching of repentance and the conversion of sinners. The announcement of this messenger therefore implied, that the nation in its existing moral condition was not yet prepared for the reception of the Lord, and therefore had no ground for murmuring at the delay of the manifestation of the divine glory, but ought rather to murmur at its own sin and estrangement from God. When the way shall have been prepared, the Lord will suddenly come. פּתאם , not *statim*, immediately (Jerome), but unexpectedly. “This suddenness is repeated in all the acts and judgments of the Lord. The Lord of glory always comes as a thief in the night to those who sleep in their sins” (Schmieder). “The Lord” (*hâ'âdōn*) is God; this is evident both from the fact that He comes to *His* temple, i.e., the temple of Jehovah, and also from the relative clause “whom ye seek,” which points back to the question, “Where is the God of judgment?” ([Malachi 2:17](/kjv/malachi/2/17)). The Lord comes to His temple (*hēkhâl*, lit., palace) as the God-king of Israel, to dwell therein for ever (cf. [Ezekiel 43:7](/kjv/ezekiel/43/7); [Ezekiel 37:26-27](/kjv/ezekiel/37/26-27)). And He comes as the angel of the covenant, for whom the people are longing. The identity of the angel of the covenant with the “Lord” (*hâ'âdōn*) is placed beyond the reach of doubt by the parallelism of the clauses, and the notion is thereby refuted that the “covenant angel” is identical with the person previously mentioned as מלאכי (Hitzig, Maurer, etc.). This identity does not indeed exclude a distinction of person; but it does exclude a difference between the two, or the opinion that the angel of the covenant is that mediator whom Isaiah had promised ([Isaiah 42:6](/kjv/isaiah/42/6)) as the antitype of Moses, and the mediator of a new, perfect, and eternally-enduring covenant relation between God and Israel (Hofmann, *Schriftbeweis*, i. p. 183). For it was not for a second Moses that the people were longing, or for a mediator of the new covenant, but for the coming of God to judgment. The coming of the Lord to His temple is represented as a coming of the covenant angel, with reference to the fact that Jehovah had in the olden time revealed His glory in His *Mal e akh* in a manner perceptible to the senses, and that in this mode of revelation He had not only redeemed Israel out of the hand of Egypt ([Exodus 3:6](/kjv/exodus/3/6).), gone before the army of Israel ([Exodus 14:19](/kjv/exodus/14/19)), and led Israel through the desert to Canaan ([Exodus 23:20](/kjv/exodus/23/20)., [Exodus 33:14](/kjv/exodus/33/14).), but had also filled the temple with His glory. The covenant, in relation to which the *Mal e akh*, who is of one essence with Jehovah, is here called the angel of the covenant, is not the new covenant promised in [Jeremiah 31:31](/kjv/jeremiah/31/31)., but the covenant of Jehovah with Israel, according to which Jehovah dwells in the midst of Israel, and manifests His gracious presence by blessing the righteous and punishing the ungodly (cf. [Exodus 25:8](/kjv/exodus/25/8); [Leviticus 25:11-12](/kjv/leviticus/25/11-12); [Deuteronomy 4:24](/kjv/deuteronomy/4/24); [Isaiah 33:14](/kjv/isaiah/33/14)): (Koehler). The words “Behold he (the covenant angel) cometh” serve to confirm the assurance, and are still further strengthened by אמר יי צ (saith Jehovah of hosts). This promise was fulfilled in the coming of Christ, in whom the angel of the covenant, the Logos, became flesh, and in the sending of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Him. 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