Malachi 3:15

we call the proud happy The word we is emphatic, and suggests a reference on the part of the speakers to Malachi 3:12 above: "Thousayest that all nations shall call them that obey Thee happy; we, on the contrary, call the proud rebels against Thee happy."

set up Rather, built up, as A.V. margin, and R.V. Comp. Jeremiah 12:16; Job 22:23.

they that tempt, &c. Rather, yea, they tempt God, and are delivered, as R.V. The persons are the same as in the preceding clause, "they that work wickedness".

In this as in the earlier section of the prophecy the rebuke and denunciation of evil leads up to the prediction of impending judgment. In the earlier section the discriminating nature of the coming judgment is not lost sight of. It will purify as well as destroy (Malachi 3:3-4 with 5). But in this latter section this feature of discrimination becomes more prominent. And the thought is added, for the comfort of the godly, that the discriminating judgment exists already (Malachi 3:16-17), though its manifestation must be waited for till "the day" comes (Malachi 3:18). The day in which all men shall "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not", will be the day, not of the inception, but of "the revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5).