The context for this passage is the last days, further emphasizing the need for a complete and accurate Nephite record, which is part of those events. The Messiah has already told the Nephites that the Book of Mormon precedes the gathering of Israel. Now Malachi verifies that Israel’s wickedness will be reversed in that last day. Instead, Yahweh’s people will “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” This situation will thus counter Israel in its wayward days when it exalted the proud and the wicked (v. 15).
Text: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition, but Orson Pratt added it in the 1879 edition to allow versification that conforms to the KJV.