ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף מלאכי 3:24

A moral/ethical approach to our verse could be based on the statement in Baba Metzia 114, that the prophet Elijah who would usher in the messianic age would be none other than Pinchas (his re-incarnation). Our verse would provide the reason why it would be Pinchas who would perform this task in the future. We are told that the principal function of the prophet Elijah at the time preceding the arrival of the Messiah will be to bridge the generation gap between fathers and sons and vice-versa, harmonising their mutual relationships (compare Maleachi 3,24). In addition to that we have learned in Edioth 8,7 that Elijah would increase שלום, harmony in the world. You will observe that in our paragraph the Torah describes Pinchas twice as being jealous, once in verse 11 and once more in our verse here. The Torah alludes to the jealousy the original Pinchas displayed on G'd's behalf during the time the Israelites were at Shittim, whereas the second reference is to the jealousy the prophet Elijah (Pinchas) displayed during the reign of King Achav when he described himself before G'd as a Kannai, a fanatic on G'd's behalf (Kings I 19,14). There too we find that he repeated the word קנא, "was jealous." At that time, Elijah alluded to the fact that this was already the second time he had played this role of being jealous on behalf of G'd. The Torah therefore mentions here that G'd granted him G'd's covenant of peace.

Why then does the Ashkenazic version not include these critical references? Perhaps the mention of Yeho’ash taking office at the age of seven suffices to remind us of the extraordinary circumstances in which Yeho’ash began his reign. However, why are the references not explicitly mentioned in the Ashkenazic reading? Yeshayahu 2 establishes that the Messianic restoration of the Davidic line will take place peacefully. Perhaps Ashkenazim omit the beginning of Yeho’ash’s rise to power as it involves rebellion and the execution of the previous leader. On the other hand, evildoers in the period leading up to the Mashi’ach will be uprooted, as is clear from Yeshayahu 66, Yechezkeil 37, and Malachi 3:24. Thus, Ataliah’s execution may still be thematically relevant to the restoration of the Davidic line.