Malachi

Oracle to post-exilic Judah: God’s covenant love affirmed—‘I have loved you’—contrasted with Edom’s destined ruin; priests rebuked for despising the LORD’s name by offering blemished sacrifices, profaning His altar, and treating worship as wearisome.

Warning to priests: curses if they ignore the covenant with Levi; indictment of pervasive unfaithfulness—men divorce covenant wives and marry foreign women, flooding the altar with tears; Judah’s sin described as wearying God by calling evil good and denying His justice.

Promise of a coming messenger who prepares the way, then the LORD will suddenly enter His temple to refine Levites like fire; call to return to God by bringing full tithes, with assurance of overflowing blessing; distinction drawn between the righteous (who fear the LORD and form a remembered ‘scroll of remembrance’) and the wicked destined for judgment.

Day of the LORD pictured as burning oven consuming the arrogant, while those who fear God’s name rise with ‘healing in its wings’; admonition to remember Moses’ Law and expect Elijah-like prophet before the great and dreadful day, turning hearts of fathers and children lest the land be struck with a curse.