Malachi 3:5

5 And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

Malachi 3:5 Meaning and 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, and too near for them: and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers;
not only a judge, but a witness; so that there will be no delay of judgment, or protracting or evading it, for want of witnesses of facts alleged; for the Judge himself, who is Christ, will be witness of them, he being the omniscient God, before whom all things are manifest. The Targum is,

``my Word shall be among you for a swift witness.''

Mention is made of "sorcerers", because there were many that used the magic art, enchantments, and sorceries, in the age of Christ and his apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem, even many of their doctors and members of the sanhedrim; (See Gill on Isaiah 8:19): and against the adulterers;
with whom that age also abounded; hence our Lord calls it an adulterous generation, ( Matthew 12:39 ) ( John 8:3-9 ) ( Romans 2:22 ) : and against false swearers;
who were guilty of perjury, and of vain oaths; who swore by the creatures, and not by the Lord, and to things not true; see ( Matthew 5:33-37 ) : and against those that oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the
widow, and the fatherless;
defrauding of servants of their wages, devouring widows' houses, and distressing the fatherless, were sins the Jews were addicted to in those times, as appears from ( James 1:27 ) ( 5:4 ) who wrote to the twelve tribes; and from what our Lord charges them with, ( Matthew 23:14 ) : and that turn aside the stranger [from his right];
and so Kimchi supplies it,

``that turn aside the judgment of the stranger;''

that do not do him justice in civil things; yea, persecuted those that became proselytes to the Christian religion: and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts;
which was the root and cause of all their sins; irreverence of Christ, disbelief of him, and contempt of his Gospel.

Malachi 3:5 In-Context

3 He will take his seat, testing and cleaning the sons of Levi, burning away the evil from them as from gold and silver; so that they may make offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in days gone by, and as in past years.

5 And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

6 For I am the Lord, I am unchanged; and so you, O sons of Jacob, have not been cut off.

7 From the days of your fathers you have been turned away from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say, How are we to come back?