Matthew Poole and continuators on Malachi 4:3

3 And ye shall tread down the wicked : for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet , in the day that I shall do this , saith the LORD of hosts.

Vid. ver. 2. let. n.

Now the ungodly, proud, and Atheistical despisers of God, Providence, and future Judgmen[illegible: 1 letter]s, do tread down those that fear God and are godly, but it shall not be so always; that word, Psal. 58.10, 11. and that [illegible: 1 word] 66.24. and that Rev. 18.20. shall be fulfilled in the overthrow of the bad, and in the Triumphs of the good. But more particularly this treading seems to be intended of those who, after the sacking and burning of Ierusalem, should return either to view the ruins, or to dwell there, and so should in going up and down, tread upon the wicked, either buried in the Ruins or consumed to Ashes.

By this it appears, that those preserved ones did not barbarously tread upon the entire Bodies of the wicked, but upon the ashes of those bodies by the fire consumed and turned into ashes, and mixt with the ashes of their Houses and Goods.

Burn Jerusalem and the Temple with the Citizens and Priests whose carcasses were slain by the Sword, or their persons surprised with the Flames, shall be burnt up. And so both this and much of the first verse may be literally understood, and was so fulfilled by Titus and his Souldiers, Anno Christi, 73.