Malachi's use of in dialogue with the wisdom tradition of proverbs

Abstract

This article examines Malachi's use of in dialogue with the wisdom tradition of Proverbs. The proposition of the article is that wisdom in the book of Proverbs is tôrah-oriented and that Malachi's use of tôrah serves to present and elevate tôrah as Israel's Wisdom Tradition/teaching. The ideas of hearing, keeping, or forsaking the tôrah in Prov 28:4, 7, 9; 29:18 correspond to the idea of remembering the tôrah of Moses in Mal 3:21. Within the contextual perspective of the Mosaic covenant, it is believed that keeping the Mosaic tôrah constitute wisdom for Israel (Deut 4:6; cf. Ps. 19:7; 119:130). As taught in the OT, wisdom is, in some extent, the manifest expression and outworking of the Yahweh's law in the heart and life. Thus, in light of the close connection between tôrah and wisdom in the OT, this article presents a general understanding of wisdom relative to the HB as a background, it examines tôrah wisdom from selected passages in the book of Proverbs, analyses the use of tôrah in Malachi's dialogue and then concludes with a synthesis of the relationship between tôrah wisdom in Proverbs and tôrah usage in Malachi's dialogue.