Malachi — the name means 'My Messenger' — was the last of the canonical Hebrew prophets, prophesying in Jerusalem some four hundred years before Christ. The Second Temple had been built; the people had grown indifferent; the priests offered blemished sacrifices; the men of Judah divorced the wives of their youth.
His oracles call the people back to fidelity in marriage, in worship, and in the giving of tithes. His final words (Mal 4:5) prophesy the return of Elijah before 'the great and dreadful day of the Lord' — words the Gospels apply to St. John the Baptist (Mt 11:14).
After Malachi the prophetic voice in Israel falls silent for some four centuries, until the angel Gabriel speaks in the Temple to the priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. The seal of the Old Testament leads directly into the opening of the New.