the last of the minor prophets, flourished contemporarily with Nehemiah; and from various coincidences in his prophecy with Nehemiah chap. xiii., it may be concluded that they acted together in the work of political and religious restoration. His name (My Angel, or rather Angel of Jehovah) has by some been regarded as only an official title, and, in absence of evidence in regard to his personal history, Ezra, Nehemiah, Mordecai, and even an incarnate angel, have been put forward as authors of the book. In the same way, all Scripture history might be unsettled. That Malachi flourished later than Zechariah is sufficiently evident from the fact that he is not mentioned along with that prophet in the book of Ezra; and from internal evidence it is plain that he lived to see a more thorough restoration of the Jewish worship than Zechariah was privileged to see. He even lived to see the restored worship decline; and amid the decay of morals he prophesied the advent of the forerunner of the Messiah. The canoni- city of this book is undoubtedly. Special expositions of it have been written,—among others, by Venema, Bahrdt, Faber, and Fischer.