The book of Malachi is seldom referenced in Christian devotion or worship, with a rare
exception being its use as an offering appeal during public worship. But is there more to
Malachi than an offering appeal? Furthermore, what is the purpose of the strong curse at the
end of the text that leads many Jewish people to this day to avoid ending the reading of the
book with its last verse?
In “Blessing and Cursing in Malachi: A Reader-Oriented Approach,” the text of Malachi is
explored to uncover fresh insights, particularly concerning the themes of blessing and cursing.
Three consecutive and complementary steps are taken to explore the book: a syntactic
analysis, revealing the organization and flow of the text; a semantic analysis, uncovering
themes and their relationships; and a communication analysis, examining the interaction
between the Text-Internal Author and the Text-Internal Reader.
The analyses reveal that blessing and cursing, although used differently compared to other
parts of the Hebrew Bible, constitute an effective means of guiding the Text-Internal Reader
to a proper relationship with the divine and their community.
