“The sun of righteousness with healing in its wings”
for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:2 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A poetic but puzzling image of a sun with literal wings.
The cultural key
The image draws on a symbol every ancient reader knew: the winged sun disk, a sun with great outstretched wings, carved over temple doorways and royal thrones across Egypt, Assyria, and Persia as the emblem of a supreme, life-giving, protecting deity. The 'wings' of the sun are its spreading rays reaching down to the earth. Malachi takes this familiar picture and fills it with hope: for those who fear God, righteousness itself will dawn like the rising sun, and its rays ('wings') will carry healing, warmth, life, and restoration, driving out the cold and dark of judgment. The response is pure joy: the healed will 'leap like calves let out of the stall' into spring pasture. Christian tradition later heard the 'Sun of Righteousness' as a title for Christ (the carol 'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing' calls Him exactly that). A modern reader pictures a bird-winged sun; the first hearers saw the great winged solar emblem turned into a promise of dawning healing.
Recovered meaning
The 'wings' of the sun are its outspread rays, from the ancient winged-sun symbol of a life-giving deity; Malachi promises that righteousness will dawn like the sun and its rays bring healing to the faithful, who leap for joy like freed calves.