I Will Send You Elijah

Malachi 3:23 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 24 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 land with utter destruction.
Jews accept Malachi as the last prophet sent to the Jewish people. The book of Malachi expresses God's disgust with the Jewish people because they have forsaken His covenant.

Malachi 1:5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say: 'The LORD is great beyond the border of Israel.' 6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is My honour? and if I be a master, where is My fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise My name. And ye say: 'Wherein have we despised Thy name?' 7 Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar. And ye say: 'Wherein have we polluted thee?' In that ye say: 'The table of the LORD is contemptible.' 8 And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it no evil! And when ye offer the lame and sick, is it no evil! Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts. 9 And now, I pray you, entreat the favour of God that He may be gracious unto us!--this hath been of your doing.--will He accept any of your persons? saith the LORD of hosts. 10 Oh that there were even one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle fire on Mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name is great among the nations; and in every place offerings are presented unto My name, even pure oblations; for My name is great among the nations, saith the LORD of hosts. 12 But ye profane it, in that ye say: 'The table of the LORD is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even the food thereof, is contemptible.' 13 Ye say also: 'Behold, what a weariness is it!' and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering; should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD. 14 But cursed be he that dealeth craftily, whereas he hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.

These verses express God's contempt for Israel's sin. He wishes in this passage that someone would "shut the doors" to the Temple, that someone would prohibit the Jews from further defiling His name until they repented. He says that in the other (non-Jewish) nations, His name will be properly glorified and exalted.
Then He promises to send "Elijah the Prophet."

Malachi 3:22 Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. 23 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 24 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 land with utter destruction.

The coming Elijah, it is said in this passage, would turn the hearts of the fathers towards their children (perhaps a reference to an end to the practice of child sacrifice/infanticide) and the hearts of the children towards their fathers before the land was struck with destruction.
The Prophet Elijah, may he be remembered for good, was a great prophet sent during one of the darkest hours in Jewish history. Indeed, Elijah complained to God:
And he said: 'I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.' (1 Kings 19:10)
This complaint came after the famous showdown between Elijah and the priests of Baal. Elijah called all of the northern kingdom, Israel, together. He told them to choose what God was true: Baal or Yhvh, the Hebrew sacred name of God. They stood silent, so he challenged the priests of Baal to a duel; they would each offer a sacrifice, and the one that was consumed by fire from heaven would be considered true. The people agreed. Elijah's prayer was answered by fire; he then stood up and killed the 850 prophets of Baal that had been under the care of the king and queen of Israel. The queen swore to kill Elijah, who fled to the Arabian peninsula, where God spoke to him.
Elijah was a beacon of light in a dark world. He stood against evil and did many miracles. Yet little is known of his origin. He is referred to as "Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead." Tishbite can be correctly translated a stranger, rendering the verse, "Elijah the stranger, from the strangers in Gilead", inferring that Elijah was not Jewish. Further emphasizing that point, the Bible does not typically include genealogies for non-Abrahamic or convert prophets (as for example Obadiah the Edomite and Hagar daughter of Pharaoh). Elijah was from Gilead, a general term for the area east of the Jordan river. The "balm of Gilead" is generally known as the "balm of Mecca."
Thus Malachi, the last prophet before the "long darkness" in Jewish prophetic history, foretold the coming of Elijah. Could it be that the Elijah meant was a non-Jewish prophet from outside the land of Israel, even perhaps from the Arabian peninsula?