Malachi 4:5

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
send	שֹׁלֵ֣חַ sho.Le.ach	H7971	to send away · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
you Elijah	אֵלִיָּ֣ה 'e.li.Yah	H452	Elijah · proper noun, a man's name
the prophet	הַנָּבִ֑יא ha.na.Vi'	H5030	a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
before	לִפְנֵ֗י lif.Nei	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
the coming	בּ֚וֹא Bo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal infinitive construct
of the great	הַגָּד֖וֹל ha.ga.Dol	H1419	great (in any sense) · definite article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
and dreadful	וְהַנּוֹרָֽא ve.ha.no.Ra'	H3372	to fear · conjunction + definite article + verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
day	י֣וֹם Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD	יְהוָ֔ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title

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

Luke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the w…
Matthew 17:10-13 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Mark 9:11-13 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Matthew 11:13-14 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
Malachi 3:1 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, eve…
Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
John 1:21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Malachi 4:4–end

This is doubtless intended for a solemn conclusion, not only of this prophecy, but of the canon of the Old Testament, and is a plain information that they were not to expect any more sayings nor writing by divine inspiration, any more of the dictates of the Spirit of prophecy, till the beginning of the gospel of the Messiah, which sets aside the Apocrypha as no part of holy writ, and which therefore the Jews never received. Now that prophecy ceases, and is about to be sealed up, there are two things required of the people of God, that lived then: - I. They must keep up an obedient veneration for the law of Moses (Mal 4:4): Remember the law of Moses my servant, and observe to do according to…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Malachi 4:5

I send you Elijah--as a means towards your "remembering the law" (Mal 4:4). the prophet--emphatical; not "the Tishbite"; for it is in his official, not his personal capacity, that his coming is here predicted. In this sense, John the Baptist was an Elijah in spirit (Luk 1:16-17), but not the literal Elijah; whence when asked, "Art thou Elias?" (Joh 1:21), He answered, "I am not." "Art thou that prophet?" "No." This implies that John, though knowing from the angel's announcement to his father that he was referred to by Mal 4:5 (Luk 1:17), whence he wore the costume of Elijah, yet knew by inspiration that he did not exhaustively fulfil all that is included in this prophecy: that there is a f…

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John Gill on Malachi 4:5

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,.... Not the Tishbite, as the Septuagint version wrongly inserts instead of prophet; not Elijah in person, who lived in the times of Ahab; but John the Baptist, who was to come in the power and spirit of Elijah, Luke 1:17 between whom there was a great likeness in their temper and disposition; in their manner of clothing, and austere way of living; in their courage and integrity in reproving vice; and in their zeal and usefulness in the cause of God and true religion; and in their famous piety and holiness of life; and in being both prophets; see Matthew 11:11 and that he is intended is clear from Matthew 17:10. It is a notion of the Jews, as Kimchi…

The Church Fathers

And behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and notable day of the Lord.
— Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 5

Who of those who hear Jesus say of John, "If you wish to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come," would not inquire how John says to those who ask, "Are you Elijah?" "I am not"? Will he not also inquire how one ought to consider John himself to be Elijah who is to come, according to Malachi's statement: … "And behold, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and renewed Day of the Lord comes, who will restore the heart of the father to his son and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and smite the earth utterly"?
— Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:62

And what is the source of your belief that Elijah who is to come will baptize? He did not even baptize the wood on the altar in the times of Ahab, when it needed a bath that it might be burned up when the Lord appeared in the fire. He commanded the priests to do this, and not only once, for he says, "Do it a second time, when also they did it for a second time." And "Do it a third time, when also they did it a third time." How, then, will he who did not baptize at that time but gave the task to others, baptize when he has come in fulfillment of things said by Malachi? Christ therefore does not baptize in water but his disciples. He reserves for himself the act of baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire.
— Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:125

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

Elijah — Whose God is Jehovah. (1.) “The Tishbite,” the “Elias” of the New Testament, is suddenly introduced to our notice in 1 Kings 17:1 as delivering a message from the Lord to Ahab. There is mention made…
Malachi — Messenger or angel, the last of the minor prophets, and the writer of the last book of the Old Testament canon (Mal. 4:4, 5, 6). Nothing is known of him beyond what is contained in his book of…
Messiah — (Heb. mashiah), in all the thirty-nine instances of its occurring in the Old Testament, is rendered by the LXX. “Christos.” It means anointed. Thus priests (Ex. 28:41; 40:15; Num. 3:3), prophets (1…
Day · . — .
John · .Prophecies concerning — .Prophecies concerning
Malachi · The coming of the forerunner of the Messiah — The coming of the forerunner of the Messiah
Messenger · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE

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 4:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Malachi 4:4–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Malachi 4:5

John Gill on Malachi 4:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Malachi 4:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Malachi 4:4–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Malachi 4:5

John Gill on Malachi 4:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Malachi 4:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Malachi 4:4–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Malachi 4:5-6