Last Book Of The Old Testament: The Book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It describes God’s continued relationship with His people, and it also speaks about what to expect from God in terms of judgment, or blessing
The last book in the old testament is Malachi. Malachi means messenger, and in this book God gives his final words to the Israelites through a series of messages. Read about this last Old Testament book as you finish your Bible study for today!
The Bible is an important book in the history of Western culture and is also considered to be the books of both the Old and New Testament. In some way it is quite a controversial book because it involves “ God “ as one of its central characters . The Old Testament consists of books written until about the 4 th century BC, with later additions. The last book from the Old Testament is the Book of Malachi and was written around 400 BC.”
Last Book Of The Old Testament
The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. It is the shortest book of the Bible and has only three chapters. Malachi was written around 420-430 B.C., so it was written after the Jews were taken into captivity by Babylon, but before they were allowed to return from exile (about 490 B.C.).
Malachi’s name means “My messenger,” which could refer to either God or an angel.
The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi.
Malachi was written about 400 years before Christ. It was written after Haggai and Zechariah, which were written during the same time period as Ezra and Nehemiah.
Malachi is a short book, but it contains many important truths for Christians. Malachi tells us about God’s love for His people and their response to Him in return. He also warns of judgement against those who have turned away from God and His commandments.
The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi.
Malachi is a book of prophecy that focuses on the coming Messiah and his mission to restore God’s people. It also emphasizes the importance of faithfulness and obedience to God’s commandments.
Malachi was written approximately 400 years before Christ, during a time when many Jews had turned away from God and were worshiping idols instead. The prophet Malachi delivered this message: “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.” (Malachi 4:4) He encouraged those who remained faithful to God’s law even though they faced persecution because of it, reminding them that God would reward them in heaven with blessings beyond their imagination.
The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi, which means “my messenger”. It was written around 400 years before Christ. Malachi is the last of the 12 minor prophets who were sent by God to warn Israel about their sins.
Malachi’s name means “my messenger” and it is a fitting title for this prophet, who delivers God’s final message for his people. There are three main themes in Malachi:
God will punish sin (1-6)
God loves Israel (7-8)
God will send Elijah before judgment (9-14)
The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi, which means “my messenger.” This book is sometimes called “The Prophecy of Malachi,” because he predicted that Elijah would come again before the day of judgment.
Malachi also rebuked the people for being unfaithful to God, and he reminded them that they had not done what they were supposed to do.
The last chapter of Malachi begins with these words: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” (Malachi 3:1) This prophecy was fulfilled when John the Baptist came announcing that Jesus was about to appear on earth.
Last Book Of The Old Testament Kjv
What Are the Books of the Bible, or Ta Biblia?
The Bible is long and complicated, so it can be a bit hard to keep it all straight. The scriptures contain hundreds of stories over generations. Christian Bibles, which borrow heavily from the Hebrew Tanakh, are broken down into different books; we’ve presented the full list of books in order for your reference.
As we discuss below, different traditions count different books and order them differently. We’ve decided to present them here in the order used in most mainline Protestant Bibles, as those are the most common variety in the United States where we’re based.
See also The King James Bible, Old Testament Names, and Kings of Judah & Israel
Looking to broaden your religion reading? Check out our list of the best books on Buddhism.
What Are the 46 Books of the Old Testament in Order?
The Hebrew Scriptures
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
What Are the Books of the New Testament in Order?
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts of the Apostles
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
The Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical Books
The Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical
Tobit
Judith
Additions to the Book of Esther
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus
Baruch
The Letter of Jeremiah
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
1 Esdras
Prayer of Manasseh
Psalm 151
3 Maccabees
2 Esdras
4 Maccabees
The Hebrew Scriptures & the Old Testament
The first books in the Christian bible are the holy books of the Jewish faith, collected in the Tanakh. “Tanakh” is an acronym of the three major division of the Hebrew holy book–the Torah (“teachings,” also known to Christians by the Greek name “the Pentateuch” or “five books”), Nevi’im (“prophets”), and Ketuvim (“writings”). In Christian traditions these books are called “the Old Testament.” The Jewish faith also adheres to the teachings in the Talmud, rabbinical commentaries on the Tanakh; unlike the Tanakh, Christian scripture does not recognize the Talmud.
Different Christian traditions acknowledge different books of the Bible as canonical. The Tanakh includes only 24 books, while mainline Protestant bibles inclue 39*, Catholics include 46, and Eastern Orthodox groups include 49. The books included in some bibles and not others are called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical; this means either that they are not canon, or that they are less canonical than primary canon.
*Protestant bibles do not include more material than Hebrew bibles, but they divide the book of the 12 minor prophets into 12 different books, as well as dividing the book of Ezra-Nehemiah into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the book of Chronicles into 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. All Christian bibles, however, are ordered differently than the Tanakh.
The Five Books of Moses/the Pentateuch
The only set of books included in all forms of the Tanakh and the Old Testament, in the same order, is the Torah or Pentateuch. These five books, the five books of Moses, are the first and arguably most important books in the scripture.
An Overview of the Old Testament & the New Testament
The Old Testament begins with the book of Genesis, which tells the story of how the world was created, and how God anointed his chosen people and taught them how to live. This includes famous stories like those of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah’s Ark.
After Genesis, the different books of the Old Testament relate the trials of the Israelites as they endure centuries of enslavement or captivity under different empires. There is a general pattern where God sends a prophet to teach the Israelites how to live and to lead them from hardship, but over time they lose faith and find themselves suffering new hardships. The most famous example is Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt–the people are impious and must wander the desert for forty years before their descendants can enter the promised land.
Some of the other important episodes from the Old Testament include the rise of King David, the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Babylonian Captivity. The Old Testament also includes various sayings and songs about morality, god, and other esoteric subjects.
The New Testament is concerned with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, which are the basis for Christianity. His life story is told in the four Gospels (which comes from the Old English for “good news”). Almost all of the other books are letters written by Saint Paul or other Christian teachers, discussing their beliefs or giving advice.
The last book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation, written by John the Apostle, which recounts an apocalyptic vision of the End of Days. The most important event discussed in Revelation is the Second Coming of Christ, although most of the events in Revelation are controversial in their meaning.
Notes on Biblical Terms
There are a few cases of terms that crop up a lot in the books of the bible, but that get confused in everyday language. We just want to focus in on two; the different terms for “God’s chosen people” in the Bible, and how God is identified and named.
The terms “Hebrew,” “Jew,” and “Israelite” are often used interchangeably, but they do mean slightly different things, as addressed in this informative post from Chabad.
The first person identified as a Hebrew is Abraham, and so in a sense the Hebrews are descendants of Abraham. More specifically, the etymology of Hebrew implies an individual who is across or has crossed something, and so it is often used to describe the people of Abraham when not in Israel/Canaan, and when resisting cultural pressures and temptations from outside groups. Joseph is called a Hebrew when in Egypt. Lastly, Hebrew is often used to refer to the Hebrew-speaking Jews of Roman Judaea.
Israelite more specifically refers to descendants of Jacob or Israel, the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel who later would be split between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It is important to note that Israelite is different from the current national demonym Israeli, indicating a person from the country of Israel.
Jew, lastly, refers to the people of Judah, and then after the Babylonian exile to Israelites more broadly due to cultural and religious importance of Judah. In general, Jew or Jewish person is used to refer to a person who practices Judaism or is part of the Jewish community. Due to its invective use by anti-semites, the word “Jew” by itself can sometimes sound harsh or rude, but there are many cases in which it’s perfectly neutral and appropriate.
The Name of God
In the Tanakh, God is identified with the seven different names. Per tradition, these are to be treated with extreme reverence; you shouldn’t erase or damage them when written down. For that matter, despite our academic use of them here, you’re not supposed to write them down too often either.
The most significant name for God in the Tanakh is the Tetragrammaton, or the four letters. The four letters are transliterated as YHWH. In Latin, since the letter J originally was pronounced like a Y or I, and the letter V sounded like a W, this was written JHVH (from which we get “Jehovah,” as in the Witnesses). Since you’re not supposed to write the name down too often, it’s common to change a letter (in English this is often written as G-d) or to space the letters, like Y-H-W-H.
Especially in Judaism, but in many Christian traditions as well, you are not supposed to pronounce the Tetragrammaton. When referring to the name itself, one would typically same HaShem (“The Name” in Hebrew). When reading the four letters, it is pronounced Adonai (or “The Lord”). If the word “Lord” is already next to the four letters, you would say Elohim. This is how we arrive at the common English phrase “the Lord God.”
Last Book Of The Old Testament Chronologically
Okay. While this is true of your Bible, this has not always been the case, and it certainly wasn’t in Jesus’ time. Here’s what I mean. The Bible that Jesus was familiar with, what we now refer to as the Old Testament, did not end with Malachi. In fact, it wasn’t even a single volume book. Rather, it was a collection of separate scrolls that were made to be read as a unified collection, and the book designed as the concluding crown jewel was Chronicles! Your favorite books of the Bible, I’m sure.
Now I’m not saying that there was anything inherently wrong with the decision to re-order the books with a new name, “the Old Testament.” In fact, we don’t even know precisely when this change happened. Our earliest manuscripts with the order of the modern Bible are in Christian manuscripts dating to the mid-300s A.D. However, this original design shape of the Hebrew scrolls was never lost in Jewish tradition up to this day. So it’s more than likely that the re-ordering was done by Christians who were no longer familiar with the Bible in Hebrew, and had therefore lost touch with its original design shape.
This is too bad because when you read the Old Testament in its traditional order, the storyline shows a remarkable unity that doesn’t quite come through in the order most Christians are accustomed to. For example, let’s say you muster up the energy to read the Bible from Genesis chapter one through the historical books. You’ll eventually come to 2 Kings 25 (last book in Kings), where one of Judah’s kings, Jehoiachin, is released from prison. Then you turn the page to 1 Chronicles 1 and discover nine chapters of genealogies copied from Genesis, followed by a repeat of the stories of David and Solomon that you just read in Samuel and Kings. And you say to yourself, “Great, I’ve already covered all of this!” So if someone’s behind on their Bible reading plan, Chronicles is the point where they can catch up again because, seriously, do we need to read all that again? But this raises an important question: Why are Chronicles in the Old Testament at all?
The TaNaK
It may be a surprise to find out that the two books of Chronicles were originally one scroll, simply called Chronicles. And the book was placed at the end of the traditional Hebrew canon. The Hebrew canon refers to the collection of Hebrew (and some Aramaic) books that were recognized as Scripture in ancient Israel. The traditional order that we’ve been talking about has been referred to as “TaNaK.” The TaNaK is an acronym for the names of the three large subcollections of the Hebrew Bible: Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim.
Torah, often referred to as “The Torah,” “Pentateuch,” or the “first five books of Moses,” is directly translated as “law” or “instruction.”
Nevi’im means “prophets,” and this section was traditionally split into two groups, the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel – 2 Kings) and the latter prophets (Isaiah – Malachi). In Christian tradition, the former prophets are thought of as the “historical” books, and the latter prophets are categorized as the major and minor prophets.
Ketuvim means “writings,” and this subcollection includes the rest of the Old Testament, everything from Daniel to Esther, from Proverbs to Job, and more. It is here, nestled at the end of the Ketuvim, that we see Chronicles wrap up the Hebrew canon.
What about Malachi?
First, let’s take a look at Malachi. Why did this book eventually get adopted as the conclusion of the Christian Old Testament? It actually makes a lot of sense. Through the prophet Malachi, the God of Israel exposes just how corrupt the post-exilic generations have become after returning from Babylon. The general picture we get from the book is that the long years of Israel’s exile did not fundamentally change the hearts of the people. They’re still in rebellion against God, the temple is corrupted, and the reader is left waiting for some kind of resolution. And that’s exactly what Malachi announces. The Day of the Lord is coming to purify Israel from all moral compromise and evil, so that a faithful remnant can emerge out of the other side. While the tone of the book is kind of a downer, it ends with a hopeful note that God will come one day to sort everything out. And that final, hopeful note is precisely what makes Malachi a great ending to the Christian Old Testament. But remember, it’s not the original ending.
Why Chronicles?
Contrast Malachi with Chronicles, which is placed at the end of the Hebrew canon. This book, which is mostly narrative with genealogy and poetry mixed in, leaves a different impression. Chronicles opens with introductory genealogies that recap the entire biblical storyline from Adam all the way to the post-exile generation. The emphasis of Chronicles is to foster hope in God’s promise to David for a new king and a new Jerusalem, which will become a dwelling place for the divine glory along with a new, restored Israel. From here, the book moves on to recount the story of the kings of Jerusalem. Again, the focus is on David and God’s covenant promise of the seed that would come through his line. This promised king would build a new temple and reign over Israel and the nations. As you read about every descendant of David, all of them fail, but there are a handful of bright-spot characters (Hezekiah and Josiah, for example) who succeed more than they fail. For the Chronicler, these narratives about the past kings from David’s line serve as a prophetic pointer to what the future promised king will be like, only better!
When you read the last portion of the scroll of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 36), you’ll notice a bit of a time warp, to the tune of 70 years! 2 Chronicles 36:21 says,
“This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.”
2 Chronicles 36:21
This is referring to the exile by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (the reference is to Jeremiah 25). Jump to the next verse (and skip 70 years) in 2 Chronicles 36:22, “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia…” It’s here where we read that the Persian King Cyrus is letting the Israelites return home. By skipping the period of the exile, the Chronicler highlights that the exile was 70 years long. This raises the question: does this number hold significance? Could it possibly be related to why the people were in exile to begin with?
It’s All About the Sevens
God’s original desire for his people and their land was for their lives to revolve around rest. Over the course of the time, from David up until the exile, the land the Lord gave as an inheritance to his people should have received a total of seventy Sabbath years (you can read all about this in Leviticus 25). Why seventy? The Jewish calendar was set up in sequences of sevens. Every seven days, there was to be rest in the land. Every seven years, there was to be a year of release, where a mini-restoration took place. After seven of these seven-year cycles occurred, there was to be a year of Jubilee, the major release year when all sold land was restored to the original owners, when slaves were freed, and celebrations abounded! These cycles were symbolic festivals that retold the exodus story and commemorated how the Lord brought his people out of captivity as slaves and introduced joy back into their lives. However, if you recall from reading Chronicles, the kings of Israel and Judah did not observe any of these Sabbath celebrations, rendering the land in dire need of rest, the way the Lord intended. The author wants us to view the seventy years of Babylonian exile as a repayment for all of the ignored Jubilee years throughout Israel’s history. If you can do the math, seventy times seven years of ignored Sabbath-Jubilees equals 490 years! And if you go back and carefully track the chronology of Chronicles from the reign of David to the exile, guess what? It adds up to 490 years!
So, in the Chronicler’s mind, those lost Sabbath-Jubilee years, seventy in total, were being made up for all at once through the exile. Let’s follow that logic. If Israel’s negligence and failure lasted 490 years, resulting in seventy years of exile, then surely Israel’s restoration would be matched by something of equal or greater proportions, a whole new cycle of Sabbath-Jubilee celebration! Keep reading in 2 Chronicles 36:22. The expectation of this new cycle has to be connected with the main themes from the rest of the book, the hope for a promised king reigning over the new Jerusalem. And, lo and behold, what do we read about in the final sentence of 2 Chronicles? The Persian king Cyrus ordered that someone go to Jerusalem, someone “whose God is with him,” so that this person can rebuild the new temple, “and let him go up… .”
70 x 7
If you’re reading 2 Chronicles in Hebrew (which most of us aren’t, so it helps to have someone tell us what’s going on!), it’s crystal clear that Cyrus’ decree ends with an incomplete sentence: “and let him go up… .” It’s not incomplete in English, but it is in Hebrew, which raises the question: Was this a mistake? No way.
To understand what’s happening with the incomplete sentence at the end of the TaNaK, let’s jump to Daniel 9. In Daniel 9, Daniel is sitting in Babylon reading the scroll of Jeremiah, which announced the seventy-year exile. From where Daniel sat, those seventy years were almost at their end, and he ponders when Israel will be restored. While he is praying, an angel appears to him (Daniel 9:21) and tells him that Israel’s sin, even after seventy years, hasn’t been adequately dealt with. So just as the Israelites took 490 years to break the covenant, there will be a corresponding seventy times seven years to restore the covenant. The exile’s punishment is not over; another 490 years are necessary before the messianic kingdom of God will come.
Now back to 2 Chronicles 36. The question remains as to why Chronicles—and the Hebrew canon—ends with the incomplete decree from Cyrus. When the formation of the canon took place, the compiler placed Cyrus’ decree at the end of Chronicles to remind us that the promise to David of the messianic king was not fulfilled when many Israelites returned after seventy years (the story’s told in Ezra-Nehemiah. Rather, there will be another seventy sevens, that is, another super-Jubilee cycle. The unfinished sentence of Cyrus’ decree functions as a hyperlink that says, “go read Daniel 9,” and when we make the connection, it’s clear that Israel still has another round of exile ahead of them before the real kingdom of God comes.
Is your head spinning yet? Take a deep breath because the numbers game is about to get real. If you put together all of these numbers we’ve been considering, you get the following: 490 years of Israel’s disobedience, seventy years of exile in Babylon, and now another 490 years of a new kind of “exile,” that is, Israel suffering under an oppressive foreign rule. The fulfillment of the real Jubilee will come after the second installment of the exile. But why must there be another round of seventy times seven? Let’s remember Daniel 9. It’s because Israel’s sin is still ongoing. There was still covenant unfaithfulness in the post-exilic community, further affirming the need for their Messiah! Exile did not purify the hearts of the people as Malachi promised. They needed a rescuing from a problem deeper than outward exile. The Chronicler lives among this “still-in-exile” community, and he composed this book to help God’s people understand their true situation. Through these ancient texts, he was able to paint a picture of the future hope for which they were waiting and had not yet seen.
Exile Didn’t End in Babylon
So the return from exile under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah didn’t solve the people’s problems. The decree from Cyrus is incomplete because the authors of the TaNaK were still waiting for a real return from exile and the coming of the Messianic kingdom of God. God’s people need a deliverer from a deeper kind of exile than simply being ruled by Babylon. In Chronicles, the literal exile has become an image of Israel’s ongoing “spiritual” exile, their slavery to evil and sin and their inability to obey the Torah. This is all representative of the human condition: home and yet not home until the kingdom of God comes. The Chronicler, and the people, are anxiously awaiting this day.
Jesus & Chronicles
This is the package deal we get when our Old Testament concludes with Chronicles! Hope, return, surprise, longing, and anticipation. We finish Chronicles with reassuring anticipation for a king from the line of David to bring about the true return from exile. He’s the one who will build the new dwelling place for his people and deal with humanity’s sin. The end of Chronicles and all that comes with it is yet another way that Christians can see how the Old Testament points forward to Jesus, what he said, and what he did. In John 5:39, Jesus says,
“You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.”
John 5:39
Jesus knew he was the fulfillment of Chronicles. What’s even more beautiful is that when Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:17-21, He reads,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:17-21
Jesus is tuned into all of these core themes in the TaNaK! He identifies that he is the one to bring about the new Jubilee. Chronicles presents the hope of a promised king from the line of David (ever wonder why Matthew opens with a genealogy? Hint: it’s a continuation of 1 Chronicles chs. 1-9). He is to bring about the true freedom from exile, and in the New Testament, we see that the king and redeemer we were waiting for is Jesus! The Scriptures are about him; he was steeped in them, and he came to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). We hope this reinvigorates your desire to take a renewed look at Chronicles because it isn’t just a weird rehashing of everything that came before; it’s a beautiful picture of everything that was yet to come, before the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus.