Malachi 4:6

He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ² 

De 29:19-29; Isa 24:6; Isa 43:28; Isa 61:2; Isa 65:15; Da 9:11; Da 9:26,27; Zec 5:3; Zec 11:6; Zec 13:8; Zec 14:2; Zec 14:12; Mt 22:7; Mt 23:35-38; Mt 24:27-30; Mr 11:21; Mr 13:14-26; Lu 1:16,17,76; Lu 19:41-44; Lu 21:22-27; Heb 6:8; Heb 10:26-31; Re 22:3,20,21

¹ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

² tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.