era.

IV. The Lot of the Faithful. In the prophecy of Malachi is first voiced
the despairing cries and doubts of those of the faithful who failed to
rise above the effect of the existing social and religious evils. They are
the righteous or afflicted who also speak through certain of the earlier
psalms of the Psalter (e.g., 10-17, 22). It was a period when the man who
did right and was faithful to the demands of the law was thereby condemned
to poverty and persecution at the hands of the corrupt priests and rulers.
Worse than that, their poverty and wretchedness were interpreted,
According to the current belief of the day, as convincing evidence of
Jehovah's displeasure because of their sins. It was a time when wickedness
triumphed and innocence suffered, and when the question whether or not a
righteous God ruled the universe rose persistently in the minds of the
faithful. The author of Malachi recognizes and seeks to meet these doubts:

Ye have said, It is useless to serve God,
And what gain is it to us to have kept his charge,
And that we have walked in funeral garb before him?
Even now we call the proud happy,
Verily those who work iniquity thrive,
Yea, they tempt God and escape.

Here the problem is the same as that of the book of Job. To these doubts
the prophet could only reply that Jehovah will keep a record of the
faithful and in his good time will reward them.

V. The Problem of Suffering in the Literature of the Period. As was
natural, this problem of innocent suffering was prominent in the
literature of the period. It became especially insistent at this time,