Malachi 4:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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 of the stall.
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
shall the Sun
שֶׁ֣מֶשׁShe.mesh
H8121
the sun · noun, common both genders singular construct
of righteousness
צְדָקָ֔הtze.da.Kah
H6666
rightness (abstractly) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
arise
וְזָרְחָ֨הve.za.re.Chah
H2224
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
with healing
וּמַרְפֵּ֖אu.mar.Pe'
H4832
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
in his wings
בִּכְנָפֶ֑יהָbikh.na.Fei.ha
H3671
an edge or extremity · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
and ye shall go forth
וִֽיצָאתֶ֥םvi.tza.Tem
H3318
to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
and grow up
וּפִשְׁתֶּ֖םu.fish.Tem
H6335
to spread · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
as calves
כְּעֶגְלֵ֥יke.'eg.Lei
H5695
a (male) calf (as frisking round) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
of the stall
מַרְבֵּֽקmar.Bek
H4770
a stall (for cattle) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Jeremiah 33:6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Isaiah 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in…
Luke 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the l…
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his strip…
Revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and…
2 Samuel 23:4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the ea…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 4:1-3
The great and terrible day of the Lord is here prophesied of. This, like the pillar of cloud and fire, shall have a dark side turned towards the Egyptians that fight against God, and a bright side towards the faithful Israelites that follow him: The day cometh, that is, the Lord cometh, the day of the Lord; and it has reference both to the first and to the second coming of Jesus Christ; the day of both was fixed, and should answer the character here given of it.
I. In both Christ is a consuming fire to those that rebel against him. The day of his coming shall burn as an oven; it shall be a day of wrath, of fiery indignation. This was foretold concerning the Messiah, Psa 21:9, Thy hand shall…
The effect of the judgment on the righteous, as contrasted with its effect on the wicked (Mal 4:1). To the wicked it shall be as an oven that consumes the stubble (Mat 6:30); to the righteous it shall be the advent of the gladdening Sun, not of condemnation, but "of righteousness"; not destroying, but "healing" (Jer 23:6).
you that fear my name--The same as those in Mal 3:16, who confessed God amidst abounding blasphemy (Isa 66:5; Mat 10:32). The spiritual blessings brought by Him are summed up in the two, "righteousness" (Co1 1:30) and spiritual "healing" (Psa 103:3; Isa 57:19). Those who walk in the dark now may take comfort in the certainty that they shall walk hereafter in eternal ligh…
But unto you that fear my name,.... The few that were of this character among that wicked nation; See Gill on Malachi 3:16,
shall the Sun of righteousness arise; not the Holy Ghost, who enlightens sinners, convinces of righteousness, and gives joy, peace, and comfort to the saints, but Christ: and thus it is interpreted of him by the ancient Jews, in one of their Midrashes or expositions (a); they say, Moses says not they shall be for ever pledged, that is, the clothes of a neighbour, but until the sun comes, until the Messiah comes, as it is said, "unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise", &c.; and Philo the Jew (b) not only observes, that God, figuratively speaking…
The Church Fathers
But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves released from the stall.
When we begin to sing justice to the Lord, we shall bear away a reward for our work, because the Lord is merciful and just, compassionate and upright. And, … as your holiness teaches us, "We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one of us may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether it be good or evil," because the Lord shall come as a burning furnace and shall burn the wicked like stubble. And to those who fear the name of the Lord, the Sun of justice shall rise, when the wicked shall be punished with the judgment of justice.
But do not take the statement that "he sprinkles to the east" as superfluous. From the east came atonement for you; for from there is the man whose name is "East," who became "a mediator between God and humanity." Therefore you are invited by this to always look "to the east" where "the Sun of Righteousness" arises for you, where a light is born for you; that you may never "walk in darkness" and that that last day does not seize you in darkness. [Therefore may] the night and fog of ignorance not come upon you unawares, but [may] you always be found in the light of knowledge, always have the day of faith and always preserve the light of love and peace.
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
Dayspring — (Job 38:12; Luke 1:78), the dawn of the morning; daybreak. (Comp. Isa. 60:1, 2; Mal. 4:2; Rev. 22:16.)
Light — The offspring of the divine command (Gen. 1:3). “All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse were habitually…
Sun — (Heb. shemesh), first mentioned along with the moon as the two great luminaries of heaven (Gen. 1:14-18). By their motions and influence they were intended to mark and divide times and seasons. The…
Calf, The · Illustrative of: Saints nourished by grace — Illustrative of: Saints nourished by grace
Saints, Compared To · Calves of the stall — Calves of the stall
Sun · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Sun, The · Illustrative: Of Christ’s coming — Illustrative: Of Christ’s coming
Titles And Names Of Christ · Sun of righteousness — Sun of righteousness
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 4:2
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 of the stall.
2. Et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum Sol justitiae, et sanitas in alis ejus; et exibitis et salietis quasi vituli saginae (vel, vituli pinguefacti.)
The Prophet now turns his discourse to the godly; and hence it appears more clearly that he has been hitherto threatening those gross hypocrites who arrogated sanctity to themselves alone, while yet they were continuing to provoke God's wrath; for he evidently addresses some different from those previously spoken of, when he says, Arise to you, etc.; he separates those wh…
The source for the title Sun of Righteousness might have been the winged sun disk that is ubiquitous in ancient Near Eastern iconography. Here it might be a title for the Messiah or a figurative description of a new era of righteousness in which God will overturn the curse of sin. Israel’s spiritual restoration, or healing, would be based on God’s cleansing the people and forgiving their sins (see Jer 33:6-8; cp. Jer 8:14-15). It would result from a collective confession of sin and their turning back to God (Mal 3:7; cp. Jer 14:19-20). • in his wings: Outstretched wings are a symbol of God’s protection and rescue (see Exod 19:4; Deut 32:10-11; Ps 17:8; 18:10).
