Blessing and Cursing in Malachi

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.