Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹  will rise with healing wings, ²  and you will skip about ³  like calves released from the stall.

Malachi 2:5

2:5 “My covenant with him was designed to bring life and peace. I gave its statutes to him to fill him with awe, and he indeed revered me and stood in awe before me.

Malachi 2:11

2:11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. ⁴  For Judah has profaned ⁵  the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god! ⁶ 

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁷  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ⁸ 

Malachi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ⁹  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ¹⁰  A scroll ¹¹  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

[4:2]  ¹ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ² sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[2:11]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:11]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”

[2:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.

[3:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ⁸ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ¹² sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).