1 Ecce ego mitto angelum meum, et præparabit viam ante faciem meam: et statim veniet ad templum suum Dominator quem vos quæritis, et angelus testamenti quem vos vultis. Ecce venit, dicit Dominus exercituum.
Mark · AD 60 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. [Malachi 3:1] The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 Of these two comings the prophet Malachi says, "And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek"; that is one coming. Of the second coming he says, " 'And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire, yes, he is coming,' says the Lord of hosts. 'But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before thy presence. This passage the Lord applied to himself and to John the Baptist.
2 Et quis poterit cogitare diem adventus ejus, et quis stabit ad videndum eum? ipse enim quasi ignis conflans, et quasi herba fullonum:
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 But as it is in mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire" and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense which disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us. And then we shall turn to what follows.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 The same Christ who did all this will hereafter stand before us as our judge. Certainly the prophets did not pass over this but foretold it. Some saw him in that very form which he would stand before us; others predicted this only in words. Daniel was in the midst of the barbarians and the Babylonians when he saw Christ coming in the clouds.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 2) Look, says the Lord of Hosts, who can think of the day of his coming? And who will stand to see him? For he will come like a refining fire and like the fullers' soap. LXX: Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts, and who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
3 et sedebit conflans, et emundans argentum: et purgabit filios Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum et quasi argentum, et erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in justitia.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 3) He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will offer sacrifices to the Lord in righteousness.
4 Et placebit Domino sacrificium Juda et Jerusalem, sicut dies sæculi, et sicut anni antiqui.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 4) And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. LXX: And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5 Et accedam ad vos in judicio, et ero testis velox maleficis, et adulteris, et perjuris, et qui calumniantur mercedem mercenarii, viduas et pupillos, et opprimunt peregrinum, nec timuerunt me, dicit Dominus exercituum.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 5) And I will come to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who oppress the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless, and those who thrust aside the sojourner: they have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 Ego enim Dominus, et non mutor: et vos filii Jacob, non estis consumpti.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 But let us look at what Celsus next with ostentation announces in the following fashion: "And again," he says, "let us resume the subject from the beginning, with a larger array of proofs. And I make no new proofs. And I make no new statement but say what has long been settled. God is good and beautiful and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree.
Hilary of Poitiers · AD 367 He does not lack things that are of Him and through Him and in Him. The Source and Maker of all, Who contains all, Who is beyond all, does not need that which is within Him, the Creator His creatures, the Possessor His possessions. Nothing is prior to Him, nothing derived from any other than Him, nothing beyond Him.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 That the divine being is immutable is shown thus: First, by authority, Malachi 3: I am God and I do not change: the Gloss says: "He says this lest it be thought that there is any mutability in God." It must be said that without doubt the divine being is altogether immutable: and this indeed must be maintained, although we cannot perfectly understand it; whence all agree in main…
7 A diebus enim patrum vestrorum recessistis a legitimis meis, et non custodistis: revertimini ad me, et revertar ad vos, dicit Dominus exercituum. Et dixistis: In quo revertemur?
Cyprian · AD 258 And while God is provoked with frequent and continual offenses, he softens his indignation, and in his patience waits for the day of retribution, once for all determined. And although he has revenge in his power, he prefers to keep patience for a long while.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 7 and following) Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
Isaac of Nineveh · AD 700 On account of its great intensity, this reflection is sometimes mingled with wonder. For the heart of those who see the Lord will rejoice. Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times, and you will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity.
8 Si affliget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me? Et dixistis: In quo configimus te? In decimis et in primitiis.
9 Et in penuria vos maledicti estis, et me vos configitis gens tota.
10 Inferte omnem decimam in horreum, et sit cibus in domo mea: et probate me super hoc, dicit Dominus: si non aperuero vobis cataractas cæli, et effudero vobis benedictionem usque ad abundantiam:
Caesarius of Arles · AD 542 Listen, then, impious one. You know that everything belongs to God; you will not give the Creator of all things something of his own? The Lord God is not in want; he does not demand recompense but honor. He does not require you to pay back something of yours. He asks the firstfruits and tithes, and do you refuse?
11 et increpabo pro vobis devorantem, et non corrumpet fructum terræ vestræ, nec erit sterilis vinea in agro, dicit Dominus exercituum.
12 Et beatos vos dicent omnes gentes: eritis enim vos terra desiderabilis, dicit Dominus exercituum.
13 Invaluerunt super me verba vestra, dicit Dominus.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 13) Your words have become burdensome to me, says the Lord, and you have said: What have we spoken against you? LXX: You have wearied me with your words, says the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Those who are spiritually immature put much stock in temporal promises and serve God with an eye to such remunerations. Then, when the people of evil life prosper, they are very much upset.
14 Et dixistis: Quid locuti sumus contra te? Dixistis: Vanus est qui servit Deo: et quod emolumentum quia custodivimus præcepta ejus, et quia ambulavimus tristes coram Domino exercituum?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 14) You have said, 'It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' LXX: And you said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what good is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' To whom the Lord replied: You have said, It is in v…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 It was, in fact, of their purely material interpretation of the law and of their failure to perceive that its temporal promises were but symbols of eternal rewards that they broke into such rebellious resentfulness as to say, "He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts?
15 Ergo nunc beatos dicimus arrogantes: siquidem ædificati sunt facientes impietatem, et tentaverunt Deum, et salvi facti sunt.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 15) Therefore now we call the arrogant blessed, for they who practice wickedness are built up and they have tested God, and they have escaped. LXX: And now we call the arrogant blessed. Yes, they who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempted God and escaped. Therefore, we call those arrogant individuals blessed, who boast against God and hurl impious blasphemies.
16 Tunc locuti sunt timentes Dominum, unusquisque cum proximo suo: et attendit Dominus, et audivit, et scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo timentibus Dominum, et cogitantibus nomen ejus.
Tertullian · AD 220 But by us, who are servants of God, who renounce both voluptuousness and ambition, each is to be repudiated. Fleshly concupiscence claims the functions of adult age, craves after beauty's harvest, rejoices in its own shame, pleads the necessity of a husband to the female sex as a source of authority and comfort or to render it safe from evil rumors.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 16) Then those who feared God spoke to one another. LXX: These are the ones who spoke, those who fear the Lord, each one to his neighbor.
17 Et erunt mihi, ait Dominus exercituum, in die qua ego facio, in peculium: et parcam eis, sicut parcit vir filio suo servienti sibi.
Jerome · AD 420 (Ver. 17, 18.) And the Lord waited, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and meditate on His name. 'They shall be Mine,' says the Lord of hosts, 'on the day that I make them My special possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
18 Et convertemini, et videbitis quid sit inter justum et impium, et inter servientem Deo et non servientem ei.