Matthew Poole and continuators on Malachi 4:6

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers unto the children , and the heart of the children to their fathers , lest I come and smite the earth with a curse .

Iohn the Baptist, who comes in the spirit and power of Elias.

It shall be his office and work to turn, as 'tis the office of every Preacher. The success is of God who also gives it as he pleaseth, and did give it to Iohns Ministry, and so the words include the event of Iohns Preaching which did, as here 'tis foretold he should, convert many.

There were at this time many great and unnatural divisions and quarrels among the Iewes, in which fathers studied mischief to their own children; they were divided and spitefully bent against them, in Civils and on account of Religion, and these turned hearts from dearest Relations. Some by fathers and children understand Iewes and Gentiles, whose Souls being converted to Christ, their hearts were turned one to another.

Undutiful children estranged by the same means and on the same accounts from their Fathers, but now by obeying the Call to Repentance, embracing the Doctrine of the Messiah, immediately to be revealed, and Baptised into it; Religious quarrels cease, and both Parents and childrens hearts unite to Christ first, and then to each other, and all to God.

God, or Christ who indeed first tenders the blessings of Grace and Peace, and gives them to such as accept, but this the Iewes would not; the Rulers, the Priests, the body of the People refused them, next thing Christ (Lord and King, rejected and disowned) will do, is to curse and destroy.

The Land of Iudaea, and the inhabitants of it.

Which brings with it, and ends in utter destruction: as at this day we read in the story of the Romans invading, subduing, captivating the Iewes, and rasing their City and Temple. That the time is past now 1644 years since a stone was not left upon a stone, as was foretold by Christ, Mat. 24.2. since those unparallel'd hardships and miseries, befell the Iewes which no heart almost can read, and not bleed at reading, (though at this distance of time) and the sufferers so deservedly endured such a curse as leaveth Ierusalem a desolate heap, and a perpetual monument of Gods displeasure, against a people that finally sin against his Sovereignty and his Mercy.