Malachi 4:3

3 You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I [am] going to act," says Yahweh 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 look! The day [is] about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every {evildoer} will be stubble. The coming day will consume them," says Yahweh of hosts. "It will not leave behind for them root or branch.

2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like {fattened calves}.

3 You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I [am] going to act," says Yahweh of hosts.

4 "Remember the instruction of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations.

5 Look! I [am] going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh!