Malachi 4:2-5

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹  will rise with healing wings, ²  and you will skip about ³  like calves released from the stall. 4:3 You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Restoration through the Lord

4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb ⁴  I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. ⁵  4:5 Look, I will send you Elijah ⁶  the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

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¹ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

sn The expression the sun of vindication will rise is a metaphorical way of describing the day of the Lord as a time of restoration when God vindicates his people (see 2 Sam 23:4; Isa 30:26; 60:1, 3). Their vindication and restoration will be as obvious and undeniable as the bright light of the rising sun.

² sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

³ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

⁴ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).

⁵ tn Heb “which I commanded him in Horeb concerning all Israel, statutes and ordinances.”

⁶ sn I will send you Elijah the prophet. In light of the ascension of Elijah to heaven without dying (2 Kgs 2:11), Judaism has always awaited his return as an aspect of the messianic age (see, e.g., John 1:19-28). Jesus identified John the Baptist as Elijah, because he came in the “spirit and power” of his prototype Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36).