Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Malachi · About this commentary
The Sun of Righteousness
Malachi 4:1-3
1 “For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. · WEB
One day does two opposite things: it burns like a furnace and it rises like the sun with healing, and which it is depends on where you stand.
The day comes burning like a furnace, and the proud and the wicked are stubble in it, left with neither root nor branch. The figure is complete removal — nothing beneath to sprout again and nothing above to survive — and it answers verse 15 exactly, where the wicked were the ones being built up.
Then the same day changes character without changing its nature. To those who fear the name, the sun of righteousness rises with healing in its wings. The image is of dawn rather than a furnace, and the word for wings is the ordinary one for the edges of a garment or a bird's outstretched span. One sun, and it either scorches stubble or warms the sick.
The response given to it is the least solemn line in the prophets: you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. After a book of weariness, sniffing, and mournful walking, the picture of the redeemed is livestock let out of a barn.
settled What this mark means