a curse

Malachi 4:6

4:6 a curse. This word, which is not the usual Hebrew word for “curse,” conveys the idea of utter destruction. Thus the return of Elijah, with all the warnings and plagues he calls forth on the earth, will be ill received by the world as a whole (the people will rejoice over his death—Revelation 11:10), and so it will be followed by “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” and, finally, by utter destruction of the whole world system, replacing it by the Messianic kingdom of Christ Himself.