Malachi 4:6 describes the promised Elijah-like messenger as turning the hearts of fathers toward children and children toward fathers, a picture of repentance, reconciliation, and covenant restoration before the Day of the LORD. The prophecy closes the Old Testament canon in Christian ordering with both a promise of prophetic preparation and a warning of judgment.

Luke 1:16-17 deliberately echoes Malachi when the angel describes John the Baptist's future ministry. John will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, turn the hearts of fathers to children, and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, preparing a people for the Lord. Luke therefore supplies an explicit interpretation of Malachi 4:6. The table's phrase "turn many to righteousness" summarizes the result reasonably well, although Luke's wording is more precisely a turning of the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous through repentance and preparation for the coming Lord.