malacatune

[MELOCOTON.] Mạ-lắc-ca, s. & a. [See def.] A. As subst.: The name of a district on the south west coast of the Malay peninsula. B. As adj .: Of or pertaining to Malacca or its inhabitants. Malacca-bean, s . Bot.: The seeds of Seme carpus anacardium . Malacca-cane, s . Bot. & Comm.: A cane, used as a walking stick, imported from Malacca, though the tree producing it , Calamus scipionum , is more common in Sumatra. Măl-a-chi, 8. [Gr. Malachias ; Heb. Malakhi , exactly the word rendered "my me enger" in ch. iii. 1, but which may have been a contraction of Malachijah me enger of Jehovah.] Script. Biog.: The last of the Old Testament minor prophets. Of his history nothing is certainly known. The Prophecies of Malachi: Old Test. Canon : The last prophetic book of the Old Testament. When it was penned, the Jewish people were under a governor instead of a king (i. 8), and the Temple rebuilt (i. 7, 10, iii. 1,10). The governor was probably Nehemiah, during his second visit to Jerusalem. If so, then Malachi prophesied probably between 430 and 425 B. C., during the first part of the Peloponnesian war, and was a contemporary of Sophocles (496-405), Euripi des (480-406), Hero dot us (484-424), and Thucydides (471-396). In Malachi's time religion was at a low ebb. The priests were not pious or moral enough to gain the respect of the people (ii. 7, 8, 9), who withheld tithes and offerings (iii. 8, 10), or, when they did pay them, selected from their flocks and herds the lame, the sick, or the torn. With absence of piety came low morality. Divorces were far too many (ii. 14, 16); adultery, false swearing, fraud upon the feeble and sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. malachite the dependent were common. The prophet sought to correct all these evils. He encouraged a small remnant who had remained faithful (iii. 16). He predicted the rise of " the Sun of righteousne " (iv. 2), the advent of Jehovah to his Temple (iii. 1), a "mo enger,"," "Elijah the prophet" preparing his way (iii. 1, iv. 5, 6). We learn that this was ful filled in the coming of John the Baptist (Matt. xi. 10-14, xvii. 10-13; Mark i. 2, ix. 11-13; Luke i. 17, 76, vii. 27). Malachi i. 2, 3 is referred to in Rom. ix. 13. The Hebrew style of the book is argumentative rather than poetical. Its canonical authority has never been doubted.