Skip to content
Wellsprings
Malachi HaNavi

Malachi HaNavi

500 BCE–430 BCE · Biblical · Jerusalem

Malachi is the last book of the Twelve and, in the Jewish canon, the last of the Prophets. His name means 'my messenger', and some scholars think it is a title drawn from Malachi 3:1 ('Behold, I am sending My messenger') rather than a personal name. Scholars generally place him after the Second Temple was rebuilt, while Jewish tradition counts him with Chaggai and Zechariah in the second year of Darius (Megillah 15a). He rebukes priests who offer blemished animals, asking whether the governor would accept such a gift (Malachi 1:7-8). He condemns marriage to 'daughters of alien gods' and breaking faith within the community: 'Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?' (Malachi 2:10-11). The book closes with the charge to remember the Torah of Moses and the promise to send Eliyahu the prophet before the great day of the LORD, to turn the hearts of parents to children and children to parents (Malachi 3:22-24). The Talmud records the view of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha that Malachi was Ezra, while the Sages held Malachi was his own name (Megillah 15a).

See Malachi HaNavi’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →

Stop 1 of 1480 BCE–450 BCEProphetic Ministry (Second Temple)

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

Malachi addresses the priests serving at the rebuilt Temple's altar (Malachi 1:7-8) and says abhorrent things have been done 'in Israel and in Jerusalem' (Malachi 2:11). The years are a scholarly estimate; tradition dates him to 520 BCE.

Jerusalem in this era

In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Yoel HaNavi

See other sages who lived in Jerusalem→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Malachi HaNavi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Yoel HaNavi

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Malachi HaNavi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.

Malachi HaNaviShapedAnshei Knesset HaGedolah