Albert Barnes Commentary Malachi 3:15

"And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape." — Malachi 3:15 (ASV)

And now we call the proud happy (blessed) – This being the case, they sum up the case against God. God had declared that all nations should “call them blessed” (Malachi 3:12) if they would obey. They answer, using His words, saying: And “now we (they emphasize the word ‘we’) pronounce blessed,” in fact, those whom God had pronounced cursed (Psalms 119:21): “You have rebuked the proud, who are cursed.” Their characteristic, among other bad people, is insolence (Proverbs 21:24), arrogance, boiling over with self-conceit, and being presumptuous toward God.

The reason for Babylon’s sentence was, “she has been proud toward the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” Jethro says of the Egyptians, as a reason for his belief in God (Exodus 18:11; compare also Nehemiah 9:16 regarding Egypt's pride toward Israel), “for, in the thing that they dealt proudly,” He was “above them.”

This pride also describes the character of Israel’s act, when God commanded them “not go up, neither fight,” and they would not hear, but “went up presumptuously into the battle” (Deuteronomy 1:41, 43).

It is the rebellious act of those who, appealing to the judgment of God, afterward refused it (Deuteronomy 17:12–13), and of Johanan’s associates, who accused Jeremiah of speaking falsely in the name of God (Jeremiah 43:2).

They are persons who rise up (Psalms 86:14), forge lies against (Psalms 119:69), dig pits for (Psalms 119:85), deal perversely with (Psalms 119:78), hold in derision (Psalms 119:51), and oppress (Psalms 119:122) the pious.

Whether or not they mean specifically the pagans, those whom these people pronounced blessed were those who were contemptuous toward God.

Yes, the workers of wickedness – those who habitually do it, whose employment it is – “are built up; yes, they have tried God and have escaped.” God had promised that if “they will diligently learn the ways of My people, they shall be built up in the midst of My people” (Jeremiah 12:16); yet these people say that the workers of wickedness “had been built up.” God had told them (Jeremiah 3:10), “make trial of Me in this;” yet these people answer that the wicked had made trial of Him and had been unpunished.