Malachi’s Use of תּוֺרַה in Dialogue with the Wisdom Tradition of Proverbs

Abstract

This article examines Malachi’s use of תּוֺרַה in dialogue with the wisdom tradition of Proverbs. The proposition of the article is that wisdom in the book of Proverbs is tôrāh-oriented and that Malachi’s use of tôrāh serves to present and elevate tôrāh as Israel’s Wisdom Tradition/teaching. The ideas of hearing, keeping, or forsaking the tôrāh in Prov 28:4, 7, 9; 29:18 correspond to the idea of remembering the tôrāh of Moses in Mal 3:21. Within the contextual perspective of the Mosaic covenant, it is believed that keeping the Mosaic tôrāh 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 tôrāh and wisdom in the OT, this article presents a general understanding of wisdom relative to the HB as a background, it examines tôrāh wisdom from selected passages in the book of Proverbs, analyses the use of tôrāh in Malachi’s dialogue and then concludes with a synthesis of the relationship between tôrāh wisdom in Proverbs and tôrāh usage in Malachi’s dialogue.

Keywords

• tôrāh-wisdom
• Proverbs
• Malachi
• wisdom tradition
• remembering and forsaking tôrāh
• Mosaic Covenant