Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet: As in 2.3; 3.1 and 4.1, the particle translated Behold introduces a new subunit in the discourse. Whereas verse 4 dealt with the Law, verses 5-6 mention the prophetic side of God’s dealings with his people. The words Behold, I will send are clearly an echo of “Behold, I send” in 3.1. It is not clear why Revised Standard Version uses a different verb tense in the two places, because the Hebrew verb form is the same. Here as in 3.1, the sense is that the LORD will take action in the near future. The real difference between the construction here and that in 3.1 is that here I represents an emphatic pronoun and is not just an affix on the particle. So it would be appropriate to translate “See, I am the one who is going to send…” or “See, it is I who will send….” The effect of this is to emphasize that the same God who gave the Law to Moses is the one who will send Elijah.

Elijah the prophet is in one sense a representative of the whole prophetic movement; yet in another sense he is the individual prophet whose actions are related in 1–2 Kings. Elijah is particularly suitable to serve as a figure of the end time because of his mysterious departure from this world without dying (2 Kgs 2.1-11). It is not clear whether Malachi intends the reader to identify Elijah as the messenger mentioned in 3.1. Jewish tradition has tended to interpret them as separate figures (Verhoef). It is unlikely that translators will need to make any decision on this point, and indeed they should try to avoid doing so. In the New Testament, the promise of Elijah’s return is regarded as fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt 11.13-14; 17.10-13; Mark 9.10-13).

It is worth noting that Elijah, like Moses in verse 4, had links with the mountain called Horeb (1 Kgs 19.8-18), and that Moses and Elijah are also linked in the New Testament in the transfiguration (Matt 17.1-13; Mark 9.2-13; Luke 9.28-36), where scholars understand them to represent the Law and the prophets respectively.

Before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes: Although the phrase the day of the LORD has not previously occurred in Malachi, it nevertheless looks back to “the day” mentioned already in 3.2, 17 and 4.1. The Hebrew adjectives here translated great and terrible have also occurred together in 1.14 (where terrible was rendered “feared” in Revised Standard Version). This whole clause occurs in identical form in Joel 2.31 (3.4 in Hebrew), but it is not clear whether one prophet has borrowed from the other, or whether both are drawing on terminology commonly used by the prophets. Translators do not have to resolve such questions, though they should be careful either to translate identical passages consistently or to have strong reasons for not doing so based on differences in the contexts.

The idea behind the word translated terrible is “causing people to fear.” Other possible renderings are “dreadful” (Moffatt, New International Version, New Living Translation, New King James Version ), “awesome” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “fearful” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The reason why people should be afraid is that the LORD will come in judgment. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 2. Edition makes this clear by adding “on which I, the LORD, will hold judgment.” Some translators in other languages may also find it helpful to mention judgment directly.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Malachi. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .