Malachi 1:1 Prescript

Malachi opens with an introductory verse, identifying this writing as an oracle “מַשָּׂא” by the hand “בְּיַד” the messenger of the Lord “מַלְאָכִי” (Malachi). In this first verse I want to highlight some hints about the kind of message that is going to be presented and some information on the author. First, מַשָּׂא expresses the idea for an utterance or oracle but this word also derives from נָשָׂא which means to lift or carry.[1] Figuratively, the oracle of the Lord is a heavy load, or burden, through the weightiness of the message to be delivered.[2] This weight of the message is felt in the six rebukes that are to come. Concerning the author, this message is בְּיַד, meaning “by the hand” which could mean that it has been written by the hand of מַלְאָכִי the Lord’s messenger. In the Vulgate the Hebrew for “my messenger” is translated as a proper name: “Malachi”. This change has been kept in translations that have followed. Earlier that the Vulgate, the Septuagint translated it ἀγγέλου αὐτου̂ (his messenger), and Targum Jonathan דיתקרי שמיה עזרא ספרא (my messenger, is called Ezra, the scribe). It would fit that both Ezra and Malachi be the same person given the common themes that are to come in Malachi and those found in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah.




[1] Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 669.


[2] Brown, Driver, Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, 672.