Malachi 3:5

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Malachi 3:1-6

The first words of this chapter seem a direct answer to the profane atheistical demand of the scoffers of those days which closed the foregoing chapter: Where is the God of judgment? To which it is readily answered, ?Here he is; he is just at the door; the long-expected Messiah is ready to appear; and he says, For judgment have I come into this world, for that judgment which you have so impudently bid defiance to.? One of the rabbin says that the meaning of this is, That God will raise up a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Malachi 3:5

And I will come near to you to judgment ,.... And so will manifestly appear to be the God of judgment they asked after, Malachi 2:17 this is not to be understood of Christ's coming to judgment at the last day, but of his coming to judge and punish the wicked Jews at the time of Jerusalem's destruction; for the same is here meant, who is spoken of in the third person before, and who will not be afar off; there will be no need to inquire after him, when he will come he will be near enough,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Malachi 3:5

I will come near to you to judgment - And what fearful cases does he get to judge! Sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, defrauders of the wages of the hireling, oppressors of widows and orphans, and perverters of the stranger and such as do not fear the Lord: a horrible crew; and the land at that time was full of them. Several were converted under the preaching of Christ and his apostles, and the rest the Romans destroyed or carried into captivity. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Malachi 3:5

Verse 5 Here the Prophet retorts the complaints which the Jews had previously made. There is here then a counter-movement when he says, I will draw nigh to you; for they provoked God by this slander — that he hid himself from them and looked at a distance on what was taking place in the world, as though the people he had chosen were not the objects of his care. They expected God to be to them like a hired soldier, ready at hand to help them in any adversity, and to come armed at their nod or... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Malachi 3:5

I will come near to you to judgment. They had asked, "Where is the God of judgment?" ( Malachi 2:17 ). He tells them that his judgment shall extend beyond the Levites even unto all the people; they will then see whether, as they supposed, the evil went unpunished. The announcement applies especially to the circumstances of Malachi's time, though, of course, it has an extended reference. Swift witness. God's judgments fall swiftly and unexpectedly; and when they fall the sinner is at once... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Malachi 3:5

Messiah's relation to society sins. It is important to see that God both considers and deals with society sins as well as individual sins. Not sufficiently is it pressed on attention, that he deals with the evils which are characteristic of aggregates of men—with sins of classes and of nations. It is in the necessary judgment of classes and nations as such that the innocent are wont to suffer with the guilty; and then the interest of the class must be seen to override the interests of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Malachi 3:5-6

The world of sinners. "And I will come near to you to judgment." From this passage we are reminded— I. THAT SINNERS EXIST IN THIS WORLD IN GREAT VARIETY . Here are "sorcerers," "adulterers," "false swearers," and heartless oppressors. The first were very general in Judaea. "There was," says Lightfoot, "hardly any people in the whole world that more used or were more fond of amulets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments. The elder who was chosen... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Malachi 3:5

And I will come near to you to judgment - They had clamored for the coming of “the God of judgment;” God assures them that He will come to judgment, which they had desired, but far other than they look for. The few would be purified; the great mass of them (so that He calls them “you”), the main body of those who had so clamored, would find that He came as a Judge, not for them but against them.And I will be a swift witness - o “In judging I will bear witness, and witnessing, I, the same, will... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Malachi 3:5

Malachi 3:5. And I will come near to you to judgment In answer to their demand, Where is the God of judgment? Malachi 2:17, God here tells them that he will hasten the time of judgment, and it shall come speedily upon them, on account of those sins that were general among them: and that if they did not repent, and reform their conduct upon the preaching of the gospel by the forerunner of the Messiah, the Messiah himself, and his apostles and other servants, he would proceed to the utter... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Malachi 3:1-18

Cheating God (2:17-3:18)When the Jews saw surrounding nations prosper while they suffered hardship, they complained that God was not just. Other nations made no effort to keep God’s law, whereas Israel was his people (17). Malachi replies that if justice is what the Jews want, then justice is what they will have; but they must realize that such justice will apply to them as well as to their heathen neighbours. They have asked for the God of justice; now he will come and do his work of justice... read more

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