isdnaiel is wrong....Malachi,chapter 4 verse 5 Behold,I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
The great and dreadful day of the Lord is when Jesus comes back with his Amry . Matt 17 is not in context with the day of the Lord.
Isaiah 40
King James Version (KJV)
40 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
[SUP]3 [/SUP]The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
[SUP]4 [/SUP]Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
[SUP]5 [/SUP]And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Malachi 4
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
[SUP]6 [/SUP]And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Matthew 3
King James Version (KJV)
3 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
[SUP]2 [/SUP]And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[SUP]3 [/SUP]For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 17
[SUP]10 [/SUP]And his disciples asked him, saying,
Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
[SUP]11 [/SUP]And
Jesus answered and said unto them,
Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]But I say unto you,
That Elias is come already, and
they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
[SUP]13 [/SUP]
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
Hmm ironically though before does not immediately have to be exactly before but if i came to like now and ten years from now someone else comes to you with the same message hmmm you would say or tell that someone "someone came to me before you "