Malachi, Prophecies of

The Book of Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew prophetic canon and the Old Testament as arranged in Christian Bibles, consists of six oracles structured as disputations — God makes a statement, Israel raises an objection, and God responds. The book addresses the post-exilic community's spiritual decline after the initial fervor of the return from Babylon: the priests are offering blemished sacrifices and despising the altar (1:6–2:9); the people are divorcing their Jewish wives to marry pagan women (2:10–16); they rob God of tithes and offerings (3:6–12); and they speak arrogantly against God, doubting that serving him is worthwhile (3:13–15).

Despite its focus on failure, Malachi contains several of the most prominent messianic and eschatological passages of the Old Testament: the promise of a pure offering among the Gentiles (1:11), the coming of the "messenger of the covenant" preceded by a preparatory messenger (3:1) — cited in Matthew 11:10 and Mark 1:2 as John the Baptist and Jesus — and the closing promise of Elijah's return before the great and dreadful day of the LORD (4:5–6), which the New Testament applies to John the Baptist. Malachi thus closes the Old Testament looking forward to what the New Testament announces as fulfilled.