Malachi 3:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Malachi 3:16
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.
properly · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
name
שְׁמֽוֹshe.Mo
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: an…
Psalms 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Malachi 4:2 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…
Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy j…
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Malachi 3:5 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…
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 3:13–end
Among the people of the Jews at this time, though they all enjoyed the same privileges and advantages, there were men of very different characters (as ever were, and ever will be, in the world and in the church), like Jeremiah's figs, some very good and others very bad, some that plainly appeared to be the children of God and others that as plainly discovered themselves to be the children of the wicked one. There are tares and wheat in the same field, chaff and corn in the same floor; and here we have an account of both.
I. Here is the angry notice God takes of the impudent blasphemous talk of the sinners in Zion and his just resentments of it. Probably there was a club of them that were in…
"Then," when the ungodly utter such blasphemies against God, the godly hold mutual converse, defending God's righteous dealings against those blasphemers (Heb 3:13). The "often" of English Version is not in the Hebrew. There has been always in the darkest times a remnant that feared God (Kg1 19:18; Rom 11:4).
feared the Lord--reverential and loving fear, not slavish terror. When the fire of religion burns low, true believers should draw the nearer together, to keep the holy flame alive. Coals separated soon go out.
book of remembrance . . . for them--for their advantage, against the day when those found faithful among the faithless shall receive their final reward. The kings of Persia ke…
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another,.... Abarbinel thinks this is a continuation of the speech of the wicked; observing, that while they that work wickedness were set up, and they that tempted God escaped punishment, they that were religious, and feared God, "were destroyed one with another", particularly by the plague; so he would have the word rendered, which we translate, "spake often one to another"; in which sense he observes that root is used in Hosea 13:14 but rather this is opposed unto what they said, by such, who, at the time referred to (which seems to be between the time of Christ's coming, spoken of in the beginning of the chapter Malachi 3:1, and the destr…
The Church Fathers
But by us, who are servants of God, who renounce both voluptuousness and ambition, each is to be repudiated. Fleshly concupiscence claims the functions of adult age, craves after beauty's harvest, rejoices in its own shame, pleads the necessity of a husband to the female sex as a source of authority and comfort or to render it safe from evil rumors. To meet these counsels, do you apply the examples of sisters of ours whose names are with the Lord—who, when their husbands have preceded them [to glory], give to no opportunity of beauty or of age the precedence over holiness. They prefer to be wedded to God. To God their beauty, to God their youth [is dedicated].
(Verse 16) Then those who feared God spoke to one another. LXX: These are the ones who spoke, those who fear the Lord, each one to his neighbor. According to the Hebrews, it is to be understood in this way: those who blaspheme against God's judgment, those who fear God have spoken to one another, that the retribution of good or evil is not in the present and brief age, but in the future and eternal; and that man cannot know God's judgments and argue about his fairness and justice; and other things that a just person should speak with a just person. And he did not say what they had spoken; but from what he brought forth: Then they spoke, fearing God, each with their neighbor, we must understand that those who feared God spoke what is contained in the words of all the Scriptures. But according to the LXX it should be read as exceptional, and with a strong voice, so that we may say: These are the ones who spoke, fearing the Lord, each to their neighbor: that is, those who boast in vain and say, 'What is the benefit, because we have kept his commandments and walked sorrowfully before the Lord?' For if they feared the Lord, they would not say such things.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Fellowship — (1.) With God, consisting in the knowledge of his will (Job 22:21; John 17:3); agreement with his designs (Amos 3:2); mutual affection (Rom. 8: 38, 39); enjoyment of his presence (Ps. 4:6);…
Book · OF REMEMBRANCE — OF REMEMBRANCE
Books · Illustrative of: Memorials of conversation and conduct of men — Illustrative of: Memorials of conversation and conduct of men
Character · .Fearing God — .Fearing God
Communion · 3:3; — 3:3;
Communion Of Saints · God marks, with his approval — God marks, with his approval
Fear, Godly · A characteristic of saints — A characteristic of saints
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Malachi 3:16
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.
16. Tunc loqunti sunt timentes Iehovam quisque ad socium suum; et attendit Iehova, et audivit; et scriptus est liber memoriae (vel, memorialis) coram facie ejus pro timentibus Iehovam, et cogitantibus de nomine ejus, (vel, in pretio habentibus nomen ejus.)
In this verse the Prophet tells us that his doctrine had not been without fruit, for the faithful had been stimulated, so that they animated one another, and thus restored each other to a right course. They who exp…
With these foolish speeches the prophet proceeds in Mal 3:16. to contrast the conduct of those who fear God, pointing to the blessing which they derive from their piety. Mal 3:16. "Then those who feared Jehovah conversed with one another, and Jehovah attended and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for those who fear Jehovah and reverence His name. Mal 3:17. And they will be to me as a possession, saith Jehovah of hosts, for the day that I create, and I will spare them as a man spareth his son that serveth him. Mal 3:18. And ye will again perceive the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not." אז, then, in…
The prophet here serves as a recorder, reporting the audience’s reaction to his final message and God’s response to the discussion among those who feared the Lord. Although God listened to their deliberations (see 3:16), there is no evidence that Malachi’s message effected any real change in the majority of his listeners.
3:16 A scroll of remembrance—a Persian tradition—was a catalog of names with a record of events associated with those individuals. We are not told how many people signed the scroll. • Those who feared him were people who were loyal to the Lord as God, obedient to God’s commands, and righteous in conduct and worship.
