Malachi 1:1

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

The burden of the word of the Lord - the heavy sentence.

To Israel - represented now by the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with individuals of the ten tribes who had returned with the Jews from Babylon. So "Israel" is used, . Compare , "Jehoshaphat king of Israel," where Judah, rather than the ten tribes, is regarded as the truest representative of Israel (cf. ; ).

Malachi - see Introduction. God sent no prophet after him until John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, in order to inflame His people with the more ardent desire for Him, the great antitype and fulfiller of prophecy.