Malakhi 2–3 | The End of Prophecy

The prophecies in Sefer Malakhi are structured as a dialogue between the prophet and the people. This dialogue conveys deep distrust on the part of the people toward the prophet’s words. The prophet presents accusations, and the people claim innocence. So, for example, in Chapter 1, when the prophet rebukes the people for showing disrespect toward the Temple service, the people respond: “So says the Lord of Hosts to you, the priests who scorn My name. Yet you say, ‘How have we scorned Your name?’” And immediately after: “You offer defiled bread on My altar. Yet you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’” (1:6–7).

This distrust becomes even more pronounced in the book’s opening prophecy, in which the people ask God: “How have You loved us?” Likewise, in Chapters 2–3, the people challenge the very premises of divine providence or reward and punishment. For example, at the end of Chapter 2: “You have wearied the Lord with your talk. But you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ By saying every evildoer is good in the eyes of the Lord and it is them whom He desires; or, ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (2:17). And even more sharply in Chapter 3, the people ask: what’s the point of serving God? “You say: ‘It is useless to serve God, and what do we gain in keeping His watch, or by walking in dark sorrow before the Lord of Hosts?’” (3:14).

In a shiur given during Herzog’s Yemei Iyun b’Tanakh, Prof. Elie Assis explains this fractured relationship between prophet and people in light of the return to Zion. On the one hand, this era was marked by great expectation — we are returning to the Land, rebuilding the Temple, and trying to restore past glory. On the other hand, the partial and disappointing reality amounted to a great letdown. When the Temple was rebuilt, those who remembered the First Temple wept upon seeing the pitiful state of the Second. And more than that — the attempt to reestablish Jerusalem was riddled with difficulties and far from the grand redemption foretold by earlier prophets. Life in the Land was under Persian rule, immigration to Israel was sparse, and economic survival was tenuous.

The people came to the Land with lofty hopes, but their enthusiasm waned as the path dragged on, riddled with setbacks. Assis uses this to explain the religious mediocrity reflected in Malakhi’s prophecy. Why do the people offer blemished sacrifices and pretend not to understand the problem? Why do they violate the covenant and marry foreign women? Assis suggests that the people feel that the covenant with God was never renewed. They returned to the Land of Israel, but God did not return to them. This estrangement — this falling between the cracks of exile and redemption — left the people in a lukewarm state. On paper, they are religious and fulfill the commandments, but in practice, they are deeply apathetic. And so, their lack of trust becomes understandable.

In light of this, Malakhi’s prophecies are indeed about renewing the relationship. “Come back to Me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of Hosts” (3:7) — once again presenting the question: who will take the first step? Chapter 3 offers an answer to this very question. The idea of the day of the Lord appears throughout the prophets, but in Malakhi, for the first time, we see the notion of a preparatory stage before that day. This is seen at the beginning of the chapter: “Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear a path before Me” (3:1). And it appears at the end of the chapter, as well: “Behold, I will send you Eliya the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord” (3:23). Before the Lord’s arrival on the day of the Lord, a messenger will appear. In the first description, the appearance of the messenger brings judgment and a steep cost: “Who can survive the day of His coming?” (3:2) — a day of refinement and burning away, eliminating those who are unworthy. But in the final description, the arrival of Eliyahu is meant to “return the hearts of parents back to their children and the hearts of children back to their parents” — to avert the calamity of the day of the Lord: “Lest I come and lay the earth waste” (3:24). It seems these represent two possibilities: one in which God renews the relationship by Himself — with all the accompanying cost — and one in which the people prepare themselves, purify themselves, and thus become worthy of the day of the Lord, a day in which overt providence returns for the righteous: “But for you, fearers of My name, a sun of righteousness will shine with healing under its wings” (3:20).

The end of the chapter prepares us for the ending of prophecy — and perhaps even sums up the period of Torah and prophecy as a whole. We can hear the prophet calling to the people: “Remember the Teaching of Moshe My servant, which I commanded to him at Chorev, statutes and laws for all of Israel” (3:22). Usually, the verb paired with the phrase “תורה” (teachings) in Tanakh is to keep — “keep the statutes and laws” etc. Here, for the first time, the verb is to remember — remember the Teaching of Moshe even after prophecy ends, maintain your connection with God even without prophecy, and “we’ll meet again” in the future: “Behold, I will send you Eliya the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord.” For further reading on the meaning of the end of prophecy and Malakhi’s final messages, see the attached reflections by Rav Mosheh Lichtenstein on the haftara of Shabbat HaGadol.