玛拉基

Malachi, whose name means 'my messenger,' is the last of the twelve Minor Prophets and the final book of the Hebrew Bible's prophetic canon, dated to approximately 450 BCE after the return from exile. His book is structured as a series of disputations—God making a claim, Israel objecting, God responding with evidence—addressing religious laxity, corrupt priesthood, mixed marriages, neglect of tithes, and cynicism about divine justice. It ends with the promise of the return of 'Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord' (Malachi 4:5), which the New Testament applies to John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14; Luke 1:17). Malachi stands at the boundary between the Old Testament prophetic tradition and the intertestamental period, and his closing verses gave the Old Testament canon a forward-looking, eschatological orientation.