1:1 - A prophecy: the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
[T Hb| BM]

This verse, serving as an introductory heading to the entire work of four chapters, specifies the nature of the work we are about to hear or read. It is

a) a prophecy,

b) the word of Yahweh,

c) it is directed specifically "to Israel," and

d) Malachi was the agent of its delivery.

A prophecy.
The Hebrew word used here for 'prophecy' is massa'. Preachers are wont to assert that this word suggests a particularly significant kind of utterance or prophecy. The verbal form of the word simply means "to lift something up," "to carry." The nominal form, in mundane use, simply means "a load," "a burden." It is, however, used frequently as a technical term to introduce an oracle of the prophets (Isa 13:1; 14:28; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; Eze 12:10; Nah 1:1; Hab 1:1; Zec 9:1; 12:1; and here). Rather than a particularly significant sort of prophecy, the term should rather be understood to lay "stress on the feeling of the prophet. His message is something place on him which he must accept and deliver to others".1 Although Jeremiah does not use massa' to describe his oracles, he understood deeply the nature of such a burden. If "I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot" (20:9). Similarly Paul says he was "compelled to preach" (1 Cor 9:16). It is the kind of burden that drives him to say, in the next breath, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" Those who have been siezed by the word of God, like Malachi, Jeremiah, and Paul, cannot but accept this burden. But it is also a burden in another sense. A true preacher knows that to be so siezed by the word of God means that he must himself have to accept the demands of what is revealed to him, i.e., to repent and to be transformed accordingly by them, if he is then to preach it faithfully. To be transformed, to have to change is tough. Tough on those who hear, certainly, but it has first to be tough on the preacher. A preacher who does not understand this does not know what he is about.

the word of Yahweh to Israel
The nature of this massa' is next defined as "the word of Yahweh to Israel." The first half ot this expression explains the nature and source of the burden; it is "the word of Yahweh," the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and one does not fool around with Him. The latter half—"to Israel"—affirms its intented audience. The northern kingdom of Israel had, in Malachi's time, long since disappeared from the face of history, having been dispersed in exile under the Assyrians. But 'Israel' was originally a synonym for the elect people of God, those descended from Jacob who inherited the covenant promise of God to Abraham. In using this expression for the people of Judah, the remnant of all that Israel was meant to be, Malachi stresses the convenant status—and obligations (or, rather, the their failure to observe those obligations)—of the people to whom he was to be a messanger.

through Malachi
beyad mal'achi is literally, "in/by the hands of Malachi" and identifies the agent through which this word of Yahweh came to Israel. As already noted in the introduction Malachi means "my messanger" or even "my angel." Some commentators have argued that Malachi was, therefore, not a real person. The fact that no other person in the Old Testament has this name is seen as support for this argument. While we can never be certain that this is not the case, the majority of biblical commentators throughout the history of the Church has taken Malachi to be a personal name, and that is the assumption taken in this commentary.

Low Chai Hok
2022