Malachi 4:3

3 You will crush the wicked; they will be like dust beneath the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

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 Look, the day is coming, burning like an oven. All the arrogant ones and all those doing evil will become straw. The coming day will burn them, says the LORD of heavenly forces, leaving them neither root nor branch.

2 But the sun of righteousness will rise on those revering my name; healing will be in its wings so that you will go forth and jump about like calves in the stall.

3 You will crush the wicked; they will be like dust beneath the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

4 Remember the Instruction from Moses, my servant, to whom I gave Instruction and rules for all Israel at Horeb.

5 Look, I am sending Elijah the prophet to you, before the great and terrifying day of the LORD arrives.