Malachi 4)
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do lawlessly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, has said the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. (Heb. 12:29. Matt. 13:37-43. Those that go into the lake of fire will be turned to ashes from within [Ezekiel 28:18]. Remember this verse next time someone tells you some will burn in hell forever. There won't be a root left from which a sapling might spring forth.)
2 But to you that revere My name shall the Sun (cp. Gen. 15:17. Jer. 15:9. Nah. 3:17,&c.; and is connected with "righteousness", which Messiah, the righteous One, alone can bring) of righteousness arise with healing in His rays (Do you need a healing? Do you need the truth of God's Word to feed on? He is there for those who revere Him.); and you shall go forth, and leap for joy as calves of the stall. (Turned loose.)
3 And you shall tread down the lawless ones; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this (see Ezek. 28:18,19), has said the LORD of hosts. (Note, God said, "in the day I shall do this'. Vengeance does not belong to us. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. )
4 Remember you the law of Moses (ref. Ex. 20:3,&c.) My servant (ref. Num. 12:7), which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel (ref. Deut. 1:6; 4:10), with the statutes and judgments. (Ref. Deut. 4:1)
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before (had Israel received Messiah, John the Baptist would have been reckoned as Elijah [see Matt. 17:9-13. Mark 9:11-13]; and, at His last supper, the wine, representing His blood, would have been [as it will yet be] reckoned as "the blood of the [New] Covenant", as foretold in Jer. 31:31-34. Heb. 8:8-13; 10:15-17; 12:24) the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (God or Satan.)
The priest lineage which began again about 20 years after Ezra-Nehemiah which had straightened the Temple out went to pot. You don't know whether to trust as truth reports from that area during that 375 year period. The history is o.k., but take it with a grain of salt and use comparison and caution anything written between the end of Malachi and the Advent of Christ. Compare the first 2 chapters and recognize that man falls off the track quickly. Cp. Ezra 8:15. Priests become lazy and take man's word and not God's. Cp. Matt. 23:1,2.