The Return
- When
- c. 430 BC
- Written by
- Malachi
- Chapters
- 4
The big idea
The last Old Testament prophet answers a weary, careless people: God has loved them, wants pure worship and faithful marriages, and will send his messenger before the day of the Lord.
Themes
- Faithfulness in marriage
- God’s love questioned
- Worship and offering
- The coming messenger
Memory verse
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Key passages
- 1:2I have loved you
- 1:11A pure offering among the nations
- 2:13–16The wife of your youth
- 3:1I send My messenger
- 4:5–6Elijah the prophet
Links to other Scripture
- Matthew 11:10–14John is Elijah
- Mark 1:2The messenger
- Luke 1:17In the spirit of Elijah
- James 1:17No variation or shadow of turning
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- God opens with “I have loved you,” and the people ask how. How would you answer if you had to name it?
- Malachi says the offerings were the lame and the sick. What do you give God that costs you nothing?
- The book ends with a promise of Elijah to come and a long wait. What are you waiting on, and how are you waiting?
- In one sentence, this book is about…