Healing In His Wings

In Malachi 4:2 God speaks to the prophet Malachi and explains to him that the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings..." (Incidentally, the JST translates this passage as "Son of Righteousness").

The word from which the word wings was translated is כּנף (kânâph) which carries the basic meaning of something that projects laterally, so it can be translated as: wing, extremity, pinnacle etc. One particularly interesting translation could be: the flap of a garment or bed clothing.

This verse is understood by Latter-Day Saints as referring to the then future coming of Jesus Christ into the World. One instance of this prophecy being fulfilled could be found in Luke 8:44-48 wherein the woman having an "issue of blood" for twelve years touched the hem (or fringe) of the Savior's clothing and was healed as a result.

If we translate Malachi 4:2 as something like "the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in the fringes or borders of his garments" then the prophecy finds literal fulfillment in the story of the woman's healing.

Genesis 48

In the first few verses of chapter 48 we are once again introduced to the feminine themes that are so common throughout the book of Genesis.

Joseph, upon hearing of his father's illness, takes his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim to receive a blessing under the hands of Jacob. Before blessing Joseph's sons Jacob tells of the appearance of אל שדי (El Shaddai, usually translated as "God Almighty") at a place called לוז (Luz, which means "almond tree").

Both terms אל שדי and לוז have a feminine connotation attached to them (see above links) and femininity, in general, is associated with fertility or fruitfulness. In verse 4 of chapter 48 Jacob recalls the words of אל שדי to him at Luz which included blessings of:

1. Numerous posterity
2. The land of Canaan for an inheritance.
   

In verse 4 the term land is translated from ארץ (eretz, e.g. "The land of Israel" or "the land of America"). Interestingly, one of the terms for earth or ground (as in dirt, e.g. "I love the feel of the earth in my hands", a concept related to land) is אדמה (adamah see Genesis 2:7 ). אדמה is the feminine form of the name or word אדם (adam). אדמה, mother-like, begot or brought forth Adam, therefore, land or earth connotes fertility, femininity etc.

In addition, the words which were translated as fruitful and multiply in verse 4 of chapter 48 come from the roots פרה (parah) and רבה (rabah) which are also feminine words (the "-ah" ending in Hebrew words generally make them feminine).

For additional reading regarding these and similar concepts I highly recommend a short, but fascinating book called "Temple Theology" by Margaret Barker.

Notes on Gen. 46

Verse 34 - "Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."

Why would this be? Here is one possible explanation from Wikipedia under Abomination(Bible):

Every shepherd was "an abomination" unto the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). This aversion to shepherds, such as the Hebrews, arose probably from the fact that Upper and Lower Egypt had formerly been held in oppressive subjection by the Hyksos (a tribe of nomad shepherds), who had only recently been expelled, and partly also perhaps from this other fact that the people of Egypt detested the nomadic habits of these wandering shepherds.