Malachi 4:3

3 Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD 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 behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

3 Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.

4 “Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.