Passage

Malachi 4.5-6

Book: Malachi · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts. 4. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. 6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:3-6, ASV)

WEB

3. 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. 4. “Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. 6. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:3-6, WEB)

KJV

3. 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. 4. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:3-6, KJV)

YLT

3. And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts. 4. Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel, statutes and judgments.

5. Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful. 6. And he hath turned back the heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come and have utterly smitten the land! (Malachi 4:3-6, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: YHWH, whose word comes "by Malachi" (1:1, literally "by the hand of Malachi"), in the first person ("I will send you Elijah").
Audience: The returned community of Judah, and through them every later reader of the book, which closes here.
Location: Jerusalem and its temple, in Yehud (Judah), a province of the Persian Empire. The "governor" of 1:8 bears the Persian-era title also given to Zerubbabel (Haggai 1:1) and to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:14).
Time period: The Persian period, commonly dated to the mid-fifth century BC (c. 460-430 BC). The book carries no dated heading, but the temple is standing and its sacrifices are running, so it follows the rebuilding completed in the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6:15, c. 516 BC). The abuses it confronts, a careless priesthood, withheld tithes, and marriages to worshippers of foreign gods, are the ones Nehemiah deals with (Nehemiah 13:10-12, 23-29). These verses are 3:23-24 in the Hebrew numbering.

Theological reading

Moses and Elijah at the close. The book ends with two commands and a promise: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant" (4:4), and "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet." The law and the prophets are joined at the end of the prophetic collection. Moses and Elijah appear together again at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:3).

Before the day. Elijah is sent "before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come." He is the forerunner of 3:1, now named. His task is reconciliation: "he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers."

The New Testament reading. The angel's announcement of John the Baptist quotes this verse: he will go "in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children" (Luke 1:17). Jesus says of John, "this is Elijah, that is to come" (Matthew 11:14), and after the transfiguration, "Elijah is come already, and they knew him not" (Matthew 17:12; Mark 9:13). John himself, asked "Art thou Elijah?", answers "I am not" (John 1:21), which readers commonly take as denying that he is Elijah returned in person, while the gospels present him as the one who fulfils Elijah's role.

"Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." The word for "curse" (Strong's H2764) is the one used for things devoted to destruction, as with Jericho (Joshua 6:17, KJV margin "devoted"). The warning is the last word of the book: the mission of Elijah is sent so that the ban need not fall.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H2764 - cherem, cherem, Strong's H2764
H3820 - lev, lev, Strong's H3820
H7725 - shuv, shuv, Strong's H7725
H0001 - ab, ab, Strong's H0001
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Concepts:

Eschatology, via Malachi 4.5
Reincarnation, via Malachi 4.5

People:

Elisha

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.