Malachi 4:3

3 And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

Malachi 4:3 Meaning and Commentary

Malachi 4:3

And ye shall tread down the wicked
As grapes in the winepress, as Christ did before them, ( Isaiah 63:2 Isaiah 63:3 ) and they by virtue of him; who makes them more than conquerors through himself, over all their enemies, spiritual and temporal: for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet;
this refers to the burning of them, ( Malachi 4:1 ) and may be literally understood of their being burnt with the city and temple; when afterwards, as Grotius observes, the city of Jerusalem being in some measure rebuilt, and called Aelia, there was a Christian church in it, governed by bishops, who were converted Jews; and so might be literally said to trample upon the ashes of the wicked, who had persecuted them in times past, they being upon the very spot where these men were destroyed by fire: in the day that I shall do [this], saith the Lord of hosts:
or "in the day which I make" ^F13; that is, by the rising of the sun of righteousness, the Gospel day. The Talmud ^F14 interprets this verse of the bodies of the wicked in hell, which after twelve months will be consumed, and the wind will scatter them under the soles of the feet of the righteous.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (hve yna rva Mwyb) "eo die, quem ego facio", Cocceius.
F14 T. Bab. Roshhashanah, fol. 17. 1.

Malachi 4:3 In-Context

1 For, lo, the day hath come, burning as a furnace, And all the proud, and every wicked doer, have been stubble, And burnt them hath the day that came, Said Jehovah of Hosts, That there is not left to them root or branch,

2 And risen to you, ye who fear My name, Hath the sun of righteousness -- and healing in its wings, And ye have gone forth, and have increased as calves of a stall.

3 And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

4 Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel -- statutes and judgments.

5 Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful.