Malachi in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("messenger of Jah"), or Jehovah; contracted for Malachijah, as Abi for Abijah (2 Kings 18:2; compare 2 Chronicles 29:1). The name is that of an office rather than of a person; it occurs in the sense "My (Jehovah's) messenger" (Malachi 3:1, compare Haggai 1:13). Malachi was Jehovah's last inspired messenger of Old Testament, announcing the advent of the great Messenger of New Testament; the transition link between the two dispensations, "the skirt and boundary of Christianity," to which is due his abrupt earnestness. Not identical with Ezra, as Chaldee paraphrase represents, for Malachi is never called a scribe, always a prophet, but Ezra always a scribe, never a prophet...