Malachi quotes the people saying that those who do evil are good in God’s sight and that God delights in them Malachi 2:17. The question "Where is the God of justice?" is presented as part of speech that wearies the LORD Malachi 2:17. It sets up the response about God’s coming to judge Malachi 3:1.
In Malachi 2:17, the prophet says the people have exhausted Yahweh by the way they talk. They push back, asking how they have done that. This single verse closes the larger set of rebukes in chapter 2, where the prophet confronts breakdowns in community life and leadership and repeatedly uses a pattern of accusation followed by a defensive question and then a direct reply.
Malachi 2:17 presents God as responding not only to actions but also to repeated public talk that reshapes the community’s moral sense. The prophet says their words have “wearied” Yahweh—not as if God is physically drained, but as a way of saying their speech has become a heavy, corrosive burden.
A common mistake is to turn the wording into a slogan. The better reading keeps the phrase tied to the passage, the speaker, and the problem the book is addressing.
Start with Malachi 2:17, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
17You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them; or where is the God of justice?