Discovery BoxMalachi 2:4 
Context2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant 1 may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.
Malachi 3:12
Context3:12 “All nations will call you happy, for you indeed will live in 2 a delightful land,” says the Lord who rules over all.
Malachi 4:2
Context4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication 3 will rise with healing wings, 4 and you will skip about 5 like calves released from the stall.
1 sn My covenant refers to the priestly covenant through Aaron and his grandson Phinehas (see Exod 6:16-20; Num 25:10-13; Jer 33:21-22). The point here is to contrast the priestly ideal with the disgraceful manner in which it was being carried out in postexilic times.
2 tn Heb “will be” (so NAB, NRSV); TEV “your land will be a good place to live in.”
3 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
4 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).
5 tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”
