Prophets II Catholic Bible study Lesson 16

Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks
Through His Servants the Prophets

Volume II: Restoration & Redemption

Lesson 16 Malachi: The Final Prophetic Word in the Old Testament
the Book of Malachi 1:1—4:6

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
cross references in Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
next lesson: Greek Influences Threaten Judaism

This online supplemental material coordinates with the lesson on pages 110–115 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
—the Book of Isaiah 55:10–11 (RSVCE)**

welcome to Volume II of our in-depth study of the biblical prophets
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from Volume II of this Turning to God’s Word two-part Catholic Bible study. Our online pages link to the free related lesson videos, a glossary, and cross references in the biblical text, and include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains 23 lessons and has been granted an imprimatur. It may be purchased from our website shop. The companion 28-lesson Volume I: A Kingdom Divided also is available for purchase. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it truly to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Book of Joel 1:1–9, the Book of Joel 1:13, the Book of Joel 1:15, the Book of Joel 2:1–6, the Book of Joel 2:10–19, the Book of Joel 2:26–32, and the Book of Joel 3:1–21
Lesson 15 Joel & the Day of the LORD looks at a prophetic work best known for its focus on repentance and the coming day of the LORD. In addition, however, the Book of Joel is seen to have a strong apocalyptic quality, emphasizing that before the great and awesome day of the LORD arrives, God has promised to provide clear and impressive signs in the heavens and on the earth. The author of the book of Revelation later will pick up on this theme when describing his Christian vision of heaven and the signs that he foresees accompanying the arrival of the day of Final Judgment.

map notes—mysteries about authorship
The Book of Malachi offers only a few clues about when it was written. The use of the Persian term for governor in the oldest versions of the Book of Malachi 1:8 suggests that it was composed after 538 B.C. when the Persians became the dominant power in the region. Sacrifices being offered point to a date after completion of the Second Temple in 515 B.C. Similarity between the Book of Malachi 4:5–6 (the Book of Malachi 3:23–24 in the New American Bible Revised Edition [NABRE]) and the Book of Sirach 48:9-10, known to have been written early in the 2nd century B.C., lead most scholars to believe the Book of Malachi was written shortly after 445 B.C. This in turn leads to some speculation that this prophetic work was written by either Ezra or Zechariah, but the author, whose name means “my messenger,” remains unknown. Click on the map (right) to enlarge it. The original map is on page 114 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

adapting previous traditions to a new view of relationship with God (57:13)
In the video overview for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the main theme of the Book of Malachi, which picks up the idea of re-founding God’s kingdom on a new principle. The question that concerns the prophet is this: How can God’s people reestablish things of old for a new scenario? The Book of Malachi places foundational religious ideas in a surprising new context, making those new ideas relevant in the New Testament. (Later in this study, we’ll look at reinterpreting key passages from the Book of Malachi in the light of Jesus Christ.) The important thing to note about the time in which the prophet Malachi is writing is that the LORD wants his people to get things right, which means they have to fix whatever has been wrong with their relationship with God in the past.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the ranges for the sets of questions in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can follow along as author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 16, “Malachi: The Final Prophetic Word in the Old Testament,” on pages 110–115 in the study book.

a short work addressed to all of the descendants of Jacob
Even though very little is known about the author of the Book of Malachi because the work is so short, it’s possible for us to include all of this significant biblical text in our overview of the prophets. While the Book of Malachi appears last in the Old Testament, it isn’t last in chronological sequence. Because the book opens with a reference to Jacob (Israel), it seems obvious that the references to Israel in this work are to all of the descendants of Jacob. The opening verses call to mind the original covenant and the relationship between God and the descendants of Jacob. Learn more about the various meanings associated with the word Israel by referring to our online glossary, which lists the meaning of proper nouns included in the biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

God’s special relationship with the descendants of Jacob
Although it can seem that the Book of Malachi begins with the same basic theme as the Book of Obadiah, there’s a significant difference in the way the authors describe God’s punishment of the descendants of Esau (Edom). In the Book of Obadiah, the Edomites are marked for destruction because of the way that they have treated God’s people, the descendants of Jacob (Israel). In the Book of Malachi, the prophet’s point isn’t that the Edomites have been wicked (although they have been); the point is that it’s through God’s covenant blessing passed from Isaac to Jacob that the Israelites have been promised an eternal heritage. The descendants of Jacob are special because they’ve been called to be set apart and holy. This makes them different from all other people, including the Edomites, who are their close kin. The Book of Obadiah was covered in this study in Lesson 6 Obadiah’s Oracles Against Edom. Lesson 15 The Brothers Esau & Jacob in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis examines the early lives of these closely related biblical figures.

what Matthew says—priests get the lion’s share of the blame for the people’s behavior
The covenant with God never was designed to operate as a democracy. Humans aren’t equal to God. The LORD is the boss, and men and women are expected to do what God asks. If they do, the protection of the covenant applies. Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that people who fail to uphold the covenant will end up like Esau. Because the priesthood is guilty of buying into the idea of giving to God a bare minimum, Malachi accuses the priests of shirking their duties. The correct way for priests of the Old Testament to offer sacrifices for the atonement of sin is set forth in the book of Leviticus—interesting reading for anyone so inclined. The role of the priesthood is to observe the rules for sacrifice; this results in setting things apart to make them holy. The priests don’t get to reinterpret God’s law.

WHAT DO YOU THINK right sacrifice looks like?
The prophet Malachi criticizes the priesthood for allowing and even encouraging the people to fail to offer God their best. Malachi is harsh in how he describes the types of animals offered for sacrifice to God.

? Animal sacrifices aren’t part of Christian worship practices but sharing in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is. What can Christians do to ensure that the most important parts of our lives belong to God?

It only will take one person to offer a sacrifice that’s pleasing to God
The LORD’s statement in the Book of Malachi 1:10 foreshadows the most important thing about Jesus, who won’t arrive on the scene for several hundred years: “Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire upon my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.” Full restoration of the priesthood won’t happen until the Passion, death, and Resurrection of one man, Jesus. The Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation examines how Jesus’ sacrifice has the power to affect all people and bring glory to God.

covenants in the Bible
Although the various mentions of covenant in the Bible can be interpreted as referring to more than one covenant, Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies view each covenant with God described in Scripture as an evolution of a single covenant. This includes the New Covenant. The basic rules of the covenant don’t change, but access and availability do. The same covenant governs the rules of life and death: If you sin, you die—and if you don’t sin, then you don’t die. In the New Testament, it’s this basic covenant that allows one person (Jesus Christ) who didn’t sin to merit eternal life. It’s because Jesus was both sinless, as well as human and divine, that he’s able to share eternal life.

what Matthew says—the LORD’s covenant with Levi
In the Book of Malachi 2:4, the prophet announces that God has commanded that his covenant with Levi will hold. Although that covenant is a slight variation of the original covenant, the same rules apply: If you sin, you die, and if you don’t sin, you don’t die. The reference to Levi indicates that this relates specifically to the priesthood, whose members have a vital role in how the rules regarding life and death are executed. The Old Covenant failed to eliminate death, but through animal sacrifices made by the priests, the people could buy time. They could forestall the immediate but not the eternal consequences of sin. Animal sacrifices consisted of an exchange of life for life, but it’s impossible to buy eternity with an animal, and only an ordained priest could offer legal animal sacrifices. The covenant with Levi is a side component of the original covenant, and it’s an essential aspect of Christianity. Jesus uses the concept of a Levitical priesthood that can offer atonement for sin to offer his own sinless life. Humanity’s access to eternal life is based on this covenant with God, and specifically on the part of the covenant dealing with sacrificial offering. For more information about the covenant with Levi, watch the video for this lesson featuring Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps.

a family relationship describes the covenant
In the second chapter of the Book of Malachi, the prophet switches from writing about God as Master to writing about God as a Father. The strong emphasis on family in the Book of Malachi 2:10–16 points to the idea that humanity’s relationship with God has the potential to be much better than it has been. There are two important reasons that the prophet mentions God hating divorce. Like a marriage, the covenant is intended to be fruitful and bring about life. If there’s a divorce between husband and wife, the possibility of life disappears. Likewise, veering from the covenant means death. It’s impossible to annul the covenant with God. Some Old Testament priests chose not to follow the covenant, but they were unable to choose to stop the consequences of their free-will choice.

incorrect worship led to the fall of both the northern & southern kingdoms
All of Israel is implicated in past failure, but Malachi places the primary blame on the breakdown of worship in the southern kingdom. The prophet understands that history of the fall of both the northern and southern kingdoms can be tied to corruption of the priesthood in Judah. Correct worship practices have the ability to atone for sins of all of God’s people. This continues in the present day, and this allows Jesus’ sacrifice—which is pleasing to God—to provide blanket protection over all people.

the prophet’s most potent message might have confused his original audience
Although familiar to many Christians, the Book of Malachi 3:1–3 contains a weird contradiction that rarely is mentioned in commentaries. In the Book of Malachi 3:1, God is sending his messenger (and it may be significant that the name Malachi means “my messenger”), but it seems to be the LORD himself who’s coming. Prior to the time of Jesus, this would have been a difficult verse to interpret. The reason the same verse doesn’t cause problems for Christians is that we have an understanding of the Trinity, and it doesn’t seem odd that God the Father can send Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity who also is God. In a later lesson we’ll look at another way that this passage can be interpreted by Christians.

purification—you could look it up in our archives
In the Book of Malachi 3:3, the prophet says that God intends to purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold and silver. In Lost in Translation, an online column that can help readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps explains that “to purify” something means to make it clean. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

? Consider what there is about the sons of Levi that needs to be cleansed.
? Why might God intend to purify only the descendants of Jacob like gold and silver?
? What does that method suggest about exactly how the sons of Levi are to be purified?
? What about this verse might have caught the attention of Charles Jennens, who in 1741 included it in his libretto for George Friderik Handel’s well-known oratorio Messiah?

read the Catechism—why does this matter?
In the Book of Malachi 3:1–3, the prophet announces that the LORD will suddenly come to his Temple, and once there will purify the sons of Levi. All legitimate priests at that time were descended from Levi through his son Aaron, so all priests were Levites—though not all Levites were priests. Each lesson in the study book Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains commentaries designed to make it easier to reflect on ways that God’s Word applies to present-day Christians.

? What information in the Book of Malachi 3:1–3 makes it clear that the prophet Malachi is using the term sons of Levi to refer to the priesthood?
? In Christianity, who are the priests of the New Covenant? If necessary, refer to paragraph 1268 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
? What constitutes the ministerial priesthood of the Church today, and what do you think makes the function of ministerial priests essential to salvation?

1268 The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission. They are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Baptism gives a share in the common priesthood of all believers.

distinguishing between the righteous & the wicked
The Book of Malachi 3:13–18 highlights the danger of incorrect teaching. The people have been minimizing bad behavior, and the priests, whose job it is to ensure right behavior, have done nothing to stop them. The LORD chimes in and says that isn’t how the covenant works. It requires full participation. It isn’t necessary that people follow God’s law perfectly, but it is necessary that they give it their full effort. A present-day equivalent to the people of Malachi’s time who were questioning the wisdom of following God’s law might be people who say they don’t believe in God because he allows bad things to happen to innocent people. The writing of the prophet Malachi gives some idea of just how long people have been falling back on that line of reasoning to avoid taking faith in God.

ex libris—two books about spiritual direction
Two of the best books we’ve recently come across that discuss the practical ins and outs of discernment are Spiritual Passages by Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., and Seeking Spiritual Direction by Thomas Dubay, S.M. Both authors have written other excellent books as well, but people interested in learning more about spiritual direction may find these two titles particularly insightful. At ex libris—main bookshelf, you can read excerpts from both of these books by Catholic priests, and you also can learn more about other works related to Catholic Bible study.

prophets, priests & kings in the Old Testament & the New
In the final passage in the Book of Malachi 4:4–6, the prophet promises that Elijah the prophet will appear before the great and awesome day of the LORD. The Book of Malachi 4:4 urges God’s people to remember the law of Moses. Following the remembrance of those laws, a prophet and messenger such as Elijah will be required to reinforce God’s teachings. Starting with Moses, the Old Testament begins separating out roles and responsibilities. God cedes priestly power from Moses to Moses’ brother Aaron, which continues in Aaron’s line through his direct descendants. A certain amount of political power is surrendered from Moses to the elders, and that continues through a series of judges. Moses retains only the role of prophet, and it’s only prophets who retain their closeness to God.

failure of the political & priestly branches necessitates the need for a prophet
From the time of Moses until Jesus, the political and priestly branches undergo successive and increasing failure. The legitimate prophets sent by God never fail, however. As history moves toward the coming of God (the Incarnation), the people need a valid prophet to lead them. Elijah stands as a representative of all of the other prophets and as a model or type of the core essence of a prophet. With Jesus, all three roles of priest, prophet, and king re-converge. What Moses separated, Jesus brings together. It’s significant that Christians share in all three roles, making our relationship to the covenant different. It’s essential that present-day men and women be fully invested.

according to Malachi, why is it that the LORD is coming?
The Book of Malachi 3:2 asks a question strongly hinting that God’s arrival will involve some serious judgment—”But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”. Who, indeed? The Book of Malachi 3:5 leaves no doubt that’s one of the main reasons for the LORD coming to earth. God’s purpose is clarified even more in the promise made in the Book of Malachi 4:6: “And [Elijah the prophet before some future day of the LORD] will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I [God’] come and smite the land with a curse.” Finally, someone is coming who’s going to tell it like it is. People paying attention to the teaching of Jesus won’t be led astray and no longer will have ignorance of the good as an excuse for their bad behavior. The moral issues of the present day are complex, and it can be difficult to know what’s right, but men and women have the Church to help. The Old Covenant offered the ability to delay death. With the New Covenant, the reward of eternal life is much greater than the ability to delay death—which leads to humanity being held to a higher standard than it was held to in the Old Testament.

ex libris—God’s name is revered among the nations
In Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls, the author, Thomas L. Leclerc, M.S. (Missionaries of La Salette), a priest and professor at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, looks at the Book of Malachi 1:11: “ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” This is a surprising statement in light of the fact that the prophet strongly criticizes the priests in Jerusalem for failing to offer right sacrifices. Leclerc observes: “Foreigners in their own expressions of piety offer acceptable worship to the God of Israel.” People all over the known world are worshiping and serving God, but Jerusalem is the place where such worship is supposed to be done best. Through the prophecies of Malachi, the LORD is urging his people to get serious about their covenant relationship. You can read excerpts and learn more about Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls and other works related to Bible study at ex libris—main bookshelf.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about interpreting the Book of Malachi in the present day?
A participant in this study notes that people in her Bible study group seemed to come away from this lesson with the idea that priests are unnecessary under the New Covenant. The following questions are designed to help clarify this issue, which also will become clearer as we move through later lessons in this study:

? How do some present-day priests resemble priests at the time that the Book of Malachi was written?
? What might God have to say to priests in your diocese?
? What is the primary role of Catholic priests in the present-day Church?
? How is this role related to the role of priests of the Old Covenant?
? How is it different?
? The Latin phrase in persona Christi means “in the person of Christ.” When specifically does this term apply to present-day priests?
? What’s different about the sacrifice offered in the New Covenant and the animal sacrifices offered under the Old Covenant?
? What are some of the many things that priests in today’s Church sacrifice in order to serve God’s people?
? What can Catholics do to better support parish priests?

Q&A—questions about fear of the LORD
A participant in this study raises questions about what exactly is meant by fear of the LORD, a phrase that shows up repeatedly, especially in the Old Testament. An understanding of fear of the LORD is key to thinking about Question 2 in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

Q: In this lesson I struggled to understand what the prophet meant by “fear of the LORD.” The Lost in Translation definition of fear of the LORD is to be terrified of God, which means actually being afraid of God. It states that there are some other fairly common and often misinterpreted views about what this term means, and mentions that the words “wonder “and “awe” sometimes are substituted for the biblical term fear of the LORD. The Book of Malachi 2:5 Lost in Translation refers to fearing God and uses the word “awe” in reference to God’s name. Is that to be interpreted as being terrified of God and being in awe of God’s name, but not in awe of God? The vocabulary box defining “fear of the LORD” on page 132 in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided talks about fear of the LORD as a gift of the Holy Spirit, and says such fear “consists of recognizing the fundamental truth that the LORD is God and men and women are not.”

A: Biblical use of the term fear of the LORD tends to alarm many readers who’ve taken the idea of a loving God to mean that God is our buddy, and they reason that if that’s so then Christians have nothing to fear from their good pal. This is reinforced by the ubiquitous (and correct) biblical instruction to “be not afraid,” when encountering any manifestation of the divine. It’s this kind of thinking that has led to the frequent substitution of the word “awe” for the biblical term fear of the LORD.

It can be helpful to consider fear of the LORD from the point of view of the Book of the Proverbs 9:10, which defines the term as “the beginning of wisdom.” In the vocabulary box on page 132 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided, Pope Francis has described fear of the LORD as “an alarm that awakens us to the presence of sin in our lives and allows us to imitate Jesus Christ in humility and obedience, not with a resigned and passive attitude, but with courage and joy.” The bottom line is that it’s necessary to acknowledge that there’s a significant difference between the divine and the human—between God and ourselves. The first volume of this Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study, Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided, looks at the biblical prophets active prior to the Babylonian Exile.

Since fear and awe are not identical words, substituting awe for fear can be misleading. When we encounter difficult passages in Scripture, it’s wise never to assume that we can edit the biblical text to better communicate what it is we’ve decided that God intended the author to write. In the Book of Malachi 1:6, the LORD asks the priests: “And if I am a master, where is my fear?” It’s reasonable to start with the supposition that the prophet did indeed mean that the priests are being asked why they don’t fear God. In the Book of Malachi 2:5, standing in awe of God’s name is in apposition to fearing God, which grammatically suggests a parallel relationship between the two. In this passage, it’s fair to consider that they mean the same thing. Because a person’s name represents the core of that person’s identity, standing in awe of God’s name is essentially the same as standing in awe of God, which in this particular case is the same thing as fearing God. There’s nothing in the written structure of the Book of Malachi 1:6, however, to suggest that the author intended that readers consistently substitute the word awe for fear.

The two concepts admittedly are confusing. In the Gospel According to Mark 4:35-41, the account of the disciples’ reaction to Jesus calming a storm when they were on the Sea of Galilee can shed some light on how we’re to think about the relationship between fear and awe. The Lost in Translation archives contain an entry for fear & awe, in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps explains what’s going on in that Gospel passage.

Something equally worth thinking more about in the Book of Malachi 2:5 is the beginning of the LORD’s statement about fear and awe: “My covenant with [Levi] was a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him, that he might fear; …” Consider why the LORD expected that Levi (and by extension his descendants who became priests) would fear God as a result of being given a covenant of life and peace.

Q&A—a comment about the placement of Malachi & a question about Elijah’s return
One especially observant participant noticed that the Book of Malachi, which is placed last in the Old Testament, leads directly into the Gospel According to John, but she notes that when the four Gospels are read in the order they’re presented in the Bible, the Gospel According to John comes after the three synoptic Gospels, and scholars think it also was the final Gospel written. We urge readers to check out some of the connections between the Book of Malachi and the Gospel According to John. The same person wonders about interpreting the final verse in the Book of Malachi as a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Q: Do you think that God’s promise in the Book of Malachi 4:5–6 is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.?

A: Sure, maybe. How we view God striking the land with a curse depends on when we think the great and awesome day of the LORD is. That determines how relevant we think this passage is to present-day Christians. In the Book of Malachi 4:5–6, God makes this promise: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.” The following questions suggest a variety of ways to interpret the prophet Malachi’s words. In addition, Lesson 20 The Voice in the Wilderness will revisit the final section of the Book of Malachi in connection with whether John the Baptist fulfills a similar role in the New Testament to the one fulfilled by the prophet Elijah in the Old.

? Does the prophecy in the Book of Malachi 4:5–6 mean the Incarnation of Jesus (the first time God appears on earth in human form as Jesus)?
? Does it mean Final Judgment (the Second Coming of Jesus)?
? This Bible study gradually has been building the idea that the day of the LORD might not be one or even two particular times. Consider whether it might be possible for humanity to experience judgment at times other than those obvious ones in the previous two questions.
? Could the prophecy in the Book of Malachi possibly refer to some other intermediate time or times (perhaps associated with present-day, man-made environmental disasters) that may represent God’s judgment against humanity and thus also qualify as a day or days of the LORD?
? The prophets themselves rarely have much of a clue about what these Old Testament prophecies mean in the long term. The prophet Malachi’s original audience would have related the day of the LORD to what they knew from their history. They probably expected some kind of retribution for sin that would involve losing their autonomy and independence, and that well could involve the fall of Jerusalem—one more time. At issue also, however, is what Malachi’s prophecy means now. Consider whether it might be relevant for Christians.
? Consider whether Christians have much concern with what happens now in the geographical Promised Land.
? How do Christians understand the concept of a Promised Land that accounts for both Old and New Testament interpretations?
? Has God’s message, given through Malachi and other Old Testament prophets who foretold a day of the LORD, become bogged down in the present day because of the Old Testament prophets’ limited understanding and inability to think beyond the world they knew and their nation’s own history?

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

the Book of Malachi 1:11—paragraphs 1330, 1350, 2643
the Book of Malachi 2:6—paragraph 217
the Book of Malachi 2:7–9—paragraph 1540
the Book of Malachi 2:10—paragraph 238
the Book of Malachi 2:13–17—paragraph 1611
the Book of Malachi 4:1—paragraph 678

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

to learn more, read more Scripture
It can help to check out the cross references listed in Scripture, but looking them up is time-consuming. To make that part easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open the link and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Book of Malachi 1:1—4:6 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s biblical texts.

Lord of hosts, great King,
your name is feared among the nations,
and your covenant is of life and peace.
Help us to remember and to keep your laws and commands,
which reflect your love for us
and have been given through your servant Moses,
your angels, and your prophets.
We ask this in union with the Holy Spirit
and in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ,
who fulfills your promises of eternal salvation. Amen.

you also may like Volume I of our prophets study
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context based on the First and Second Books of the Kings and writings of biblical prophets before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. It builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King, an in-depth look at the kingdoms ruled by Saul, David, and Solomon—with special emphasis on David as a type of Jesus. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can find information on this website about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and address any of your concerns. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. A handful of more significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSVCE and RSV2CE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.

**The Book of Isaiah 55:10-11 (RSV2CE) reads: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”