This verse may be taken as a continuation of the words of the LORD (as in Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible/Revised English Bible, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or as the words of the prophet (as in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). New Revised Standard Version appears to take them as the words of the LORD, and this seems preferable since there is no indication in the Hebrew of a change of speaker.

Your own eyes shall see this: Your refers to the people of Israel, and this refers to the fate of the Edomites. Another way to express this is “You people of Israel will see this with your own eyes” (compare Good News Translation) or “You will see what happens to the Edomites with your own eyes.”

And you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”: Great is the LORD is an expression of praise found also in Psa 35.27 and 40.16. Here it states that his greatness reaches beyond the borders of Israel. This refers to God’s “power” or even “reputation.” So Good News Translation has “The LORD is mighty even outside the land of Israel,” and Contemporary English Version has “The LORD’s great reputation reaches beyond our borders.” The people will admit that the power of the LORD is demonstrated not just in his dealings with his own people, but also in his control of the fate of other nations. A possible translation model for the whole statement is “The LORD is great, and has power even over other nations.”

The argument of the paragraph as a whole is that the LORD’s love for his people is shown by current events. Israel’s enemies, the people of Edom, had been driven out of their land and would never return, whereas after the Babylonian exile the people of Israel had been allowed to return to their ancestral land. As a matter of historical fact, the Edomites never did return to their old land. They remained in what had earlier been the southern part of Judah, and which became known as Idumaea. In the second century B.C., they were conquered by the Jewish leader John Hyrcanus and forcibly incorporated into the Jewish nation.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Malachi. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .