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And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
Malachi 4:6 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
  • KJV And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
  • NKJV And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
  • NASB He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”
  • NLT His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Elijah will turn the hearts of fathers and children to one another, averting the curse of God's judgment on the land.

Overview

The forerunner's ministry will bring reconciliation and repentance, restoring relationships and turning hearts back to God, lest the land fall under a curse. This final verse of the Old Testament ends with both warning and hope. The reconciling work it promises is fulfilled in the repentance John the Baptist preached and supremely in Christ, who reconciles sinners to God and one another.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 27

  • Luke 1:16–17Many of the sons of Israel he will turn back to the Lord their God.
  • Isa 11:4but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.
  • Heb 10:26–31If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,
  • Dan 9:11All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.
  • Matt 23:35–38And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
  • Rev 22:20–21He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
  • Isa 65:15You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord GOD will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.
  • Luke 1:76And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,
  • Rev 19:15And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
  • Isa 61:2to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn,
  • Deut 29:19–29because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.
  • Isa 24:6Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
  • Rev 22:3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him.
  • Dan 9:26–27Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
  • Zech 5:3Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.
  • Zech 14:2For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
  • Zech 13:8And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it.
  • Isa 43:28So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”
  • Zech 14:12And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
  • Matt 22:7The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
  • Mark 11:21Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered.”
  • Luke 19:41–44As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
  • Zech 11:6For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
  • Mark 13:14–26So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
  • Luke 21:22–27For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
  • Heb 6:8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
  • Matt 24:27–30For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Malachi videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Malachi 4:6YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on MalachiMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The messenger who prepares the way, the sun of righteousness rising with healing, and the Lord suddenly coming to his temple set the stage for the gospel that opens with John and Jesus.

How Malachi 4:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.