Malachi 3

The Messenger, Tithes, and the Book of Remembrance

The people asked where the God of judgment was. The Lord answers that He is sending a messenger and will come to His temple like a refiner’s fire, then asks Judah to return and bring the tithe, and keeps a book of remembrance for those who fear Him.

Malachi chaptersChapter 3 of 4

After the return from Babylon and the rebuilding of the temple. The Bible Dictionary dates the prophecy to about 430 B.C.; the chapter gives no date of its own. Also in 3 Ne. 24 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Start reading

Background

Chapter 3 is the Lord’s reply to the last words of chapter 2, where the people say that everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s sight and ask, “Where is the God of judgment?”

Chapter 3 is the Lord’s reply to the last words of chapter 2, where the people say that everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s sight and ask, “Where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17). Malachi spoke to Jews who had come back from Babylonian exile. Their temple had been finished (Ezra 6:15), and the Church’s Bible chronology sets the prophecy beside Nehemiah’s second mission to Jerusalem. When Nehemiah came back to the city he found that “the portions of the Levites had not been given them” (Neh. 13:6–10). The Bible Dictionary dates the prophecy to about 430 B.C.; Scripture Helps calls the timing of Malachi’s ministry uncertain.

The chapter has three parts. In verses 1–6 the Lord says He will come after a messenger, and that judgment begins with the priests. In verses 7–12 He says why His blessings have been held back and asks Judah to return and bring the tithe. In verses 13–18 the complaint of 2:17 comes back in new words, and the Lord answers it with a book of remembrance.

Other scripture uses the chapter. Jesus said that verse 1 speaks of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:10). The risen Lord gave all of this chapter to the Nephites (3 Ne. 24), and Moroni quoted part of it to Joseph Smith (JS—H 1:36). John the Baptist’s words at the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and the Prophet’s epistle on baptism for the dead both take up verse 3 (D&C 13:1; D&C 128:24).

The thread through the chapter

The thread of the chapter is a question and its answer. At the end of chapter 2 the people ask, “Where is the God of judgment?”

The thread of the chapter is a question and its answer. At the end of chapter 2 the people ask, “Where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17). Chapter 3 says that He is coming, and then spends its length on what that means for the people who asked.

Verse 1 answers in the question’s own words. The Lord whom they “seek” will come, and the covenant messenger is the one in whom they “delight,” the same root the people had used when they said the Lord delighted in evildoers. But the judgment they asked for begins at the temple, with a refiner’s fire for the sons of Levi (verses 2–3), and then reaches the whole nation (verse 5). Verse 6 gives the reason anyone survives it: the Lord does not change. Verses 7–12 explain why the blessings had stopped. The people have left His ordinances and withheld the tithe, and “prove me now herewith” invites them to try the opposite. Verses 13–15 bring the complaint back in a second form, “It is vain to serve God.” Set against it are those who fear the Lord, who speak with one another, and for whom a book of remembrance is written (verse 16). The chapter closes with what the day will show: they are His “jewels,” a treasured possession; the son who “serveth” is spared; and the people who complained will see the difference between one who serves God and one who does not (verses 17–18).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–6

The Lord comes to His temple

In plain words

The Lord says: “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are looking for will come suddenly to His temple, the messenger of the covenant you take delight in. He is coming.” But who can endure the day He comes? Who can stand when He appears? He is like a refiner’s fire and like the soap that cleans cloth. He will sit like one who refines and purifies silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they bring the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as it did long ago.

“I will come near to you for judgment. I will be a quick witness against sorcerers, adulterers, and those who swear falsely, against those who cheat a hired worker of his wages, who oppress the widow and the fatherless, who turn aside the stranger, and who do not fear me. I the Lord do not change; that is why you sons of Jacob have not been consumed.”

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Related Scriptures #

Why Jesus gave this chapter to the Nephites

The risen Jesus gave the Nephites this chapter on His Father’s instruction, and the Book of Mormon says only part of why.

The risen Jesus gave the Nephites this chapter on His Father’s instruction, and the Book of Mormon says only part of why. He “commanded them that they should write the words which the Father had given unto Malachi,” and when they were written “he expounded them” (3 Ne. 24:1). Later He told them, “These scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations” (3 Ne. 26:2). The record does not say what He taught about them, only that “he did expound all things unto them, both great and small” (3 Ne. 26:1).

A likely reason for the choice is where His sermon had arrived. After describing the last days and the blessings of the faithful, the question left standing is Malachi’s own, “who may abide the day of his coming?” (3 Ne. 24:2). The chapter answers it: not the sorcerers and oppressors, not those who rob God or speak against Him, and at the end it draws the line between “him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (3 Ne. 24:18). The Nephite text follows Malachi’s closely; one difference, in verse 5, is taken up at Mal. 3:5.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture Central, “Why Did Jesus Give the Nephites Malachi’s Prophecies?”, KnoWhy #218, Aug. 21, 2019.

Related Scriptures #

The messenger who prepares the way

The messenger of verse 1 is a forerunner, and more than one has been sent.

The messenger of verse 1 is a forerunner, and more than one has been sent. Jesus applies the verse to John the Baptist: “This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee” (Matt. 11:10). In our dispensation, President Joseph Fielding Smith taught, Joseph Smith too “was sent to prepare the way for this second coming.”

Mark joins the verse to Isaiah’s herald, who cries “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Mark 1:2–3; Isa. 40:3). Inside Malachi the word has a history too. The Hebrew malʾāk is what Malachi calls the priest, “he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 2:7), and here it is “the herald of the advent.” The word is also spelled exactly like the prophet’s own name (Mal. 1:1), but the Savior’s use of the verse reads it of a forerunner.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 26: Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith (2013), 319–32. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. “Malachi”, Bible Dictionary.

Literary Structure #

Verse 1 answers the question that ends chapter 2

Verse 1 answers the complaint that closes chapter 2, and the Hebrew keeps the two joined.

Verse 1 answers the complaint that closes chapter 2, and the Hebrew keeps the two joined. The people had said of the Lord that “he delighteth in” those who do evil, and asked, “Where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17). Now “the Lord, whom ye seek” will come, and the messenger of the covenant is the one “whom ye delight in.” “Whom ye seek” points back to that very question. The verb in 2:17 (ḥāpēṣ) and the adjective in 3:1 (ḥăpēṣîm) are the same root, “delight in,” and the mišpāṭ, “judgment,” of “the God of judgment” is the judgment to which the Lord says He will “come near” in verse 5, a judgment “threatened against those who wanted the judgment of God to come.” The repeated root is there in the Hebrew; whether Malachi meant the echo of “delight,” the text does not say.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Witness of Christ #

The Lord who comes to His temple

The one who “shall suddenly come to his temple” is the Lord Himself, and “messenger of the covenant” is a title of Jesus Christ.

The one who “shall suddenly come to his temple” is the Lord Himself, and “messenger of the covenant” is a title of Jesus Christ. It can refer to His work of delivering the Father’s covenant to the people of the earth and making salvation possible through His gospel and Atonement. The title can also be read of Him as a restorer in His own day, “one charged by the Father to deliver priesthood powers and keys to his appointed servants.” The two messengers of the verse are different figures: the first is “the herald of the advent,” and the second is classed with the angel of the Lord of Gen. 16:7 and Ex. 23:20, as a reference to the Lord’s own coming in judgment. In Hebrew the verse says the Lord (hā-ʾādôn, which is not the divine name) and the messenger of the covenant; the King James’s “even,” which takes the two titles as one person, stands where the Hebrew has only “and.”

The coming is not a single event. The promise “likely has multiple fulfillments.” The Savior appeared in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, and said, “I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here” (D&C 110:7). The Doctrine and Covenants also looks ahead to “the Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple” as part of His coming in judgment (D&C 133:2).

Sources: Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Robert L. Millet, “The Mediator of the New Covenant”, In New Testament History, Culture, and Society: A Background to the Texts of the New Testament, ed. Lincoln H. Blumell (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2019), 278–89. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

Imagery #

Two images of cleansing

The two images that answer “who may abide?” are both about cleansing. The verb is kûl, which can mean “support, endure,” and the reason given is that He is “like a refiner’s fire,…

The two images that answer “who may abide?” are both about cleansing. The verb is kûl, which can mean “support, endure,” and the reason given is that He is “like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.” A refiner uses fire to heat precious metal until it runs, so that the impurities rise to the surface and can be removed; a fuller cleans and whitens cloth “using soap and agitation.” The Hebrew for soap, bôrît, is lye or alkali, and it occurs in only one other verse, where Jerusalem’s own washing leaves her guilt in place: “though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me” (Jer. 2:22).

Verse 3 goes on with only the refiner: “he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Refining silver “was delicate, requiring just the right temperature,” and the refiner and the fuller “could not set their processes in motion, walk away, and return later when it was finished.” The Lord of these images, likewise, “is not distant from us in our trials but is intimately engaged in our lives.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890): Hebrew dictionary entries, Read on Bible Hub (the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” line of each entry). Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). “Refiner’s Fire and Fullers’ Soap”, Ensign, Sept. 2016. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Related Scriptures #

Who the sons of Levi are

The “sons of Levi” are the priesthood holders of the law of Moses, and the promise to purify them comes after the book’s rebuke of them (Mal. 1:6–14; Mal. 2:1–9).

The “sons of Levi” are the priesthood holders of the law of Moses, and the promise to purify them comes after the book’s rebuke of them (Mal. 1:6–14; Mal. 2:1–9). Under the law the Levites were set apart for the work of the tabernacle and later the temple, and the Lord had given them “all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance” for that service (Num. 18:21). In Malachi’s day they were offering improper sacrifices; now the Lord promises to purify them, “that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”

The name does not stay in the past. When John the Baptist conferred the Aaronic Priesthood in 1829, he said that it “shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness” (D&C 13:1). The Doctrine and Covenants takes up the promised offering and says who will make it: “the sons of Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the house of the Lord” (D&C 84:31), and those who are faithful in obtaining the two priesthoods and in magnifying their calling “become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham” (D&C 84:34).

Sources: Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Latter-day Prophets #

An offering in righteousness

“An offering in righteousness” has two meanings in the Church’s teaching, and neither sets the other aside.

“An offering in righteousness” has two meanings in the Church’s teaching, and neither sets the other aside. In the Doctrine and Covenants the offering is the Saints’ own. After quoting this verse, the Prophet adds, “let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead” (D&C 128:24).

The Prophet also taught that sacrifice itself would return, and he applied these verses to it: “then shall the Sons of Levi offer an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. See Malachi iii 3. 4.” When the temple is built and the sons of Levi purified, the sacrifices of the priesthood will “be fully restored and attended to in all their powers, ramifications and blessings,” though not the whole law of Moses with its variety of ceremonies: “those things which existed prior to Moses’ day viz Sacrifice will be continued.” “In righteousness” he tied to authority: Elijah restores the keys of the priesthood “in order that all the ordinances may be attended to in righteousness.” He raised the obvious objection himself, “what necessity for Sacrifice since the great Sacrifice was offered?”, and answered it with a question: “if Repentance, Baptism and Faith existed prior to the days of Christ what necessity for them since that time”? The two meanings stand side by side, unranked, and the time is given only as near the Savior’s Second Coming.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842], Page 18 [addenda], The Joseph Smith Papers. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).

4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

Related Scriptures #

Each charge has a commandment behind it

Each sin in verse 5 was already forbidden by the law, so the “swift witness” testifies to commandments the people had.

Each sin in verse 5 was already forbidden by the law, so the “swift witness” testifies to commandments the people had. Sorcery: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Ex. 22:18; the Hebrew word there comes from the same root as Malachi’s “sorcerers”). Adultery: Ex. 20:14. False oaths: “ye shall not swear by my name falsely” (Lev. 19:12). Cheating a hired worker: “At his day thou shalt give him his hire” (Deut. 24:15). The widow, the fatherless, and the stranger: “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child” and “Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him” (Ex. 22:21–22). These were “grievous sins in the eye of the law,” and the last words of the list, “fear not me,” “point to the source from which all these sins flowed.”

“Swift” looks back to the complaint behind the chapter. The people had murmured that judgment was slow in coming (Mal. 2:17); on one reading the word is “simply the announcement that the Lord will come with unexpected rapidity,” as a witness who convicts the guilty by punishing them.

Related Scriptures #

A phrase 3 Nephi does not have

The Book of Mormon text of verse 5 lacks “from his right,” and the Hebrew has no word for it.

The Book of Mormon text of verse 5 lacks “from his right,” and the Hebrew has no word for it. In 3 Nephi the list ends “and that turn aside the stranger, and fear not me” (3 Ne. 24:5). The Hebrew of Malachi has just ûmaṭṭê gēr, “and that turn aside the stranger,” and then goes straight on to wĕlōʾ yĕrēʾûnî, “and fear not me.” The three English words “from his right” have nothing under them. The difference is small, but here the Book of Mormon reading is the closer to the Hebrew wording, and apart from punctuation it is the only difference between the two texts of this verse.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Related Scriptures #

Why God’s constancy spares Jacob’s sons

The verse explains why the judgment of verses 2–5 does not end the people: “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

The verse explains why the judgment of verses 2–5 does not end the people: “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” One reading takes the two clauses as a single argument: because the Lord is unchangeable in His purposes and Israel as His people is not to perish, He removes the wicked from Israel by judgment “in order to refine it.” On that reading the second clause recalls Jeremiah’s promise, “though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee” (Jer. 30:11), and “sons of Jacob” is emphatic: it names the true members of the covenant people, who do not perish because “their existence rests upon the promise of the unchangeable God.”

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 7–12

Return, and prove me

In plain words

“From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you.” The people ask, “How shall we return?” The Lord asks, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.” “How have we robbed you?” “In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, the whole nation of you, because you rob me.”

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there is food in my house, and test me in this, says the Lord of hosts: see whether I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for you, until there is more than room to receive it. I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that it does not destroy the fruit of your ground and your vine does not drop its fruit early in the field. All nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land.”

7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Language #

To rob God, and what was withheld

“Rob” is a rare and uncertain word in Hebrew, and the verse says exactly what was taken.

“Rob” is a rare and uncertain word in Hebrew, and the verse says exactly what was taken. The verb qāḇaʿ occurs only here and in Prov. 22:22–23. Its meaning is “dubious, perhaps rob,” and it can be glossed “to defraud, to overreach.” In Proverbs the Lord defends the poor against those who rob them. In Malachi He is the one defrauded. What was withheld was “tithes and offerings”: the tenth, maʿăśēr, and the terûmâ, the heave offering, the portion lifted off for the Lord’s use (Num. 18:26). The verse shows that “failure to pay an honest tithe is a form of robbery.”

The charge answers a question. The Lord says, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you” (Mal. 3:7), and the people ask, “Wherein shall we return?”, that is, in what particular. On one reading the question shows that “they regard themselves as righteous”; the tithe is the particular the Lord then names.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Tithe”, Bible Dictionary. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Context #

The storehouse and the Levites’ portion

The tithe in Malachi’s day fed the Levites and the temple, and the “storehouse” was a room of the temple.

The tithe in Malachi’s day fed the Levites and the temple, and the “storehouse” was a room of the temple. The Lord had given Levi “all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance” (Num. 18:21), and the Levites in turn offered “a tenth part of the tithe” as a heave offering (Num. 18:26). After the exile the people promised to bring tithes “to the chambers of the house of our God” and “into the treasure house” (Neh. 10:37–38); the Hebrew there, bêt hā-ʾôṣār, is the “storehouse” of Malachi’s verse. On his second visit to Jerusalem, beside which the Bible chronology sets Malachi’s prophecy, Nehemiah found that “the portions of the Levites had not been given them,” so that “the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field,” and when the tithe was restored “all Judah” brought it “unto the treasuries” (Neh. 13:10–12).

“Meat” in “that there may be meat in mine house” is food (the Hebrew ṭerep), and under the law of Moses the tithe was the support of the priests and Levites who served there. In our day “tithing is the donation of one-tenth of one’s income to God’s Church.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. “Chronology of the Old Testament”, Bible Dictionary, “Bible Chronology”. 34. Finances and Audits, General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).

Imagery #

The windows of heaven and the test

“The windows of heaven” is an image of rain let down, and scripture uses the same Hebrew word for the flood and for plenty.

“The windows of heaven” is an image of rain let down, and scripture uses the same Hebrew word for the flood and for plenty. The word (ʾărubbâ, a lattice or sluice) is used first for the sluices of the sky opened to destroy (Gen. 7:11: “the windows of heaven were opened”), then for plenty (2 Kgs. 7:2, where a doubting lord says, “if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?”), and finally, as a figure of blessing, here. The next clause, ʿad bĕlî day, is “until there is not sufficiency,” that is, “until my abundance can be exhausted, or, as this can never be, for ever”; the King James has “room enough.”

What the Church teaches that the windows hold is wider than rain: the blessings are “both temporal and spiritual.” Elder Neil L. Andersen taught, “The windows of heaven open in many ways. Some are temporal, but many are spiritual. Some are subtle and easy to overlook.” Elder David A. Bednar drew on the image itself: windows “allow natural light to enter into a building,” and “spiritual illumination and perspective are poured out through the windows of heaven.” The test that opens them, “prove me now herewith,” is “a phrase found nowhere else in the scriptures but when quoting Malachi.” Its Hebrew verb, bāḥan, comes back in verse 15.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Neil L. Andersen, “Tithing: Opening the Windows of Heaven”, general conference, Oct. 2023. David A. Bednar, “The Windows of Heaven”, general conference, Oct. 2013. “Tithe”, Bible Dictionary.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

Imagery #

The devourer and the curse

The “devourer” is whatever eats the harvest, and the curse of verse 9 shares its words with the covenant curses of Deuteronomy.

The “devourer” is whatever eats the harvest, and the curse of verse 9 shares its words with the covenant curses of Deuteronomy. The Hebrew is simply “the eater” (ʾōkēl, from the common verb “eat,” which is used of locusts), probably “pests such as locusts that could cause damage to crops.” “Ye are cursed with a curse” uses the noun mĕʾērâ, the word in the list of covenant curses: “The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do” (Deut. 28:20). The “rebuke” there (migʿeret) comes from the verb Malachi uses when the Lord says He will “rebuke” (gāʿar) the devourer. The same chapter names the loss: “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it” (Deut. 28:38). The shared words are there in the Hebrew; whether Malachi is alluding to Deuteronomy, the text does not say.

Sources: Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890): Hebrew dictionary entries, Read on Bible Hub (the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” line of each entry). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

Verses 13–18

“It is vain to serve God”

In plain words

“Your words against me have been hard,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You have said, ‘It is empty to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His charge and going about in mourning before the Lord of hosts? Now we call the proud blessed. Those who do wickedness are built up, and those who test God escape.’”

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and thought on His name. “They will be mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “my treasured possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then you will see once more the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

Language #

What the people count as profit

The second complaint treats service to God as a business that ought to show a profit.

The second complaint treats service to God as a business that ought to show a profit. “Vain” is šāwʾ, “emptiness, nothingness, vanity,” and “profit” is beṣaʿ, which is glossed “profit (with selfish suggestion)” at this verse. “Walked mournfully” is a single rare word, qĕdōrannît, “as mourners,” found only here, which probably describes going about in mourning as a sign of fasting. Isaiah had heard the same complaint about fasting: “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?” (Isa. 58:3). One reading finds the fault not in the complaint itself, which believers also make in their trials (“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,” Ps. 73:13), but in “the delusion that their merely outward worship … is the genuine worship which God must acknowledge and reward.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

Language #

To tempt God is to prove Him

“Tempt God” here is the verb of “prove me” in verse 10. “Prove me” (ûḇĕḥānûnî) and “tempt God” (bāḥănû ʾĕlōhîm) are both bāḥan, “prove, test, try.”

“Tempt God” here is the verb of “prove me” in verse 10. “Prove me” (ûḇĕḥānûnî) and “tempt God” (bāḥănû ʾĕlōhîm) are both bāḥan, “prove, test, try.” In verse 10 the Lord invites the test, to be made by bringing the tithe; in verse 15 the complainers say that the wicked who put God to the test “are even delivered.”

A second verb is shared with verse 12. “We call the proud happy” (mĕʾaššĕrîm) uses the verb, “pronounce happy, call blessed,” behind “all nations shall call you blessed” (wĕʾiššĕrû). The people give to the proud the word the Lord had said the nations would give to them.

16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

Language #

Speech against God, speech among the faithful

“Spake often one to another” uses the verb of the complaint in verse 13, and “often” is the translators’ addition.

“Spake often one to another” uses the verb of the complaint in verse 13, and “often” is the translators’ addition. In verse 13 the people ask, “What have we spoken so much against thee?” (nidbarnû), and in verse 16 “they that feared the LORD spake” (nidbĕrû): both are forms of dābar in the same stem. “Often” is not in the Hebrew, and a modern translation reads, “Then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another.” The text does not say what they said. It says what the Lord did: He “hearkened, and heard,” and a record was written.

Related Scriptures #

The book of remembrance

A book of remembrance is a record kept before God of those who are His, and Restoration scripture finds one in Adam’s day: “a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was…

A book of remembrance is a record kept before God of those who are His, and Restoration scripture finds one in Adam’s day: “a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration” (Moses 6:5), “according to the pattern given by the finger of God” (Moses 6:46). Such records, kept by “prophets and faithful members since that time,” “may well have a part in determining our final judgment.” The revelation of 1832 on the records of the Church “echoed the language of Malachi”: “all they who are not found written in the book of remembrance shall find none inheritance in that day” (D&C 85:9). The Prophet later distinguished the records kept on earth from “the book of life,” which “is the record which is kept in heaven” (D&C 128:7), a description that corresponds to Malachi’s book of remembrance.

Malachi’s verse says whom the book is for: “them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” It is a record of the faithful, set beside the complaint of the people who counted service worthless.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Book of Remembrance”, Guide to the Scriptures. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 6: Enoch”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 255–84.

17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Language #

Jewels, or a treasured possession

“Jewels” is the King James rendering of sĕgullâ, a people the Lord has chosen for His own, and the verse is a promise of the covenant.

“Jewels” is the King James rendering of sĕgullâ, a people the Lord has chosen for His own, and the verse is a promise of the covenant. The word means “valued property, peculiar treasure,” and as the Lord’s treasure it is used “always of people of Israel,” first at Sinai: “if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (Ex. 19:5). Elder Russell M. Nelson explained that the Old Testament word rendered “peculiar” is segullah, meaning “valued property” or “treasure.” The verse follows the book of remembrance, and Malachi’s message suggests that one purpose of that book is “to be a record of the Lord’s segullah—His treasured people who make and keep covenants with Him.”

The King James’s “when I make up” rests on the Hebrew words for “the day that I do,” nearly the same words it renders “in the day that I shall do this” at Mal. 4:3; a modern translation reads “my special possession on the day when I act.” The Doctrine and Covenants uses the verse for a people who have been chastened: “they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels. Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried” (D&C 101:3–4).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Russell M. Nelson, “Children of the Covenant”, Ensign, May 1995, 32. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway.

18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Language #

The answer to both complaints

Verse 18 tells the people who complained that they will see the difference they had denied.

Verse 18 tells the people who complained that they will see the difference they had denied. “Then shall ye return, and discern” has in the Hebrew the verbs “return” (šûb) and “see” (rāʾâ), and a modern translation reads, “Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked.” In 2:17 the people had said that everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s sight; in 3:15 they called the proud happy. On one reading the verse bids those murmurers consider what has just been said of the righteous: they “will learn that it is always profitable to serve God,” the thing verse 14 denied.

“Serve” is the word repeated to the end. “It is vain to serve God” (verse 14); “as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (verse 17); “between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (verse 18). The Hebrew verb is ʿāḇad each time. The Doctrine and Covenants uses nearly the same words for the Lord’s work before His coming, “that men may discern between the righteous and the wicked” (D&C 101:95).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Seeing Christ in Malachi 3

The one who comes in this chapter is Jesus Christ. He is “the messenger of the covenant” who comes suddenly to His temple (verse 1), and the refiner who “shall sit” to purify the sons of Levi at His coming (verse 3). John the Baptist, by Jesus’ own testimony, was the messenger sent before Him (Matt. 11:10). When He came to the Kirtland Temple He said who He was: “I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:4). And when the risen Jesus stood among the Nephites it was He who gave them these words and expounded them (3 Ne. 24:1).

Worth exploring next

Elijah. The book’s other promise of one sent before the day of the Lord is Mal. 4:5–6. In the Kirtland Temple Elijah declared that the time “spoken of by the mouth of Malachi” had fully come (D&C 110:13–16).
Tithing in the Restoration. D&C 64:23–25, D&C 85:3, D&C 97:11, and D&C 119 give the law of the tithe “as a duty and a test of faithfulness.”
Malachi in the Book of Mormon. 3 Ne. 24–26. KnoWhy #218 (Scripture Central), “Why Did Jesus Give the Nephites Malachi’s Prophecies?”, follows the sermon that leads up to it.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

3 Ne. 24 — The risen Savior gives the Nephites all of Malachi 3, with a short introduction in verse 1.
Matt. 11:10 — Jesus applies verse 1 to John the Baptist (also Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27).
D&C 13:1 — John the Baptist’s words at the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood take up verse 3.
D&C 128:24 — The Prophet quotes verses 2–3 and calls the Saints to “an offering in righteousness.”
D&C 133:2 — “The Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple” echoes verse 1.
JS—H 1:36 — Moroni quoted part of this chapter to Joseph Smith.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Malachi”, Bible Dictionary.
“Tithe”, Bible Dictionary.
Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
“Chronology of the Old Testament”, Bible Dictionary, “Bible Chronology”.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890): Hebrew dictionary entries, Read on Bible Hub (the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” line of each entry).
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway.
Scripture Central, “Why Did Jesus Give the Nephites Malachi’s Prophecies?”, KnoWhy #218, Aug. 21, 2019.
Chapter 26: Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith (2013), 319–32.
Robert L. Millet, “The Mediator of the New Covenant”, In New Testament History, Culture, and Society: A Background to the Texts of the New Testament, ed. Lincoln H. Blumell (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2019), 278–89.
“Refiner’s Fire and Fullers’ Soap”, Ensign, Sept. 2016.
History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842], Page 18 [addenda], The Joseph Smith Papers.
34. Finances and Audits, General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Neil L. Andersen, “Tithing: Opening the Windows of Heaven”, general conference, Oct. 2023.
David A. Bednar, “The Windows of Heaven”, general conference, Oct. 2013.
“Book of Remembrance”, Guide to the Scriptures.
Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 6: Enoch”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 255–84.
Russell M. Nelson, “Children of the Covenant”, Ensign, May 1995, 32.
Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56.

I’ve studied Malachi 3