1“Behold, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—behold, he is coming,” says Yahweh of hosts.
2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like the launderers’ lye.
3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver, so that they may become for Yahweh those who bring near an offering in righteousness.
4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh, as in the days of old and as in former years.
5“And I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wages of the hired worker, the widow, and the orphan, and who turn aside the sojourner, and who do not fear me,” says Yahweh of hosts.
6“For I, Yahweh, have not changed; and you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.
7From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In the tithe and the contribution!
9With the curse you are cursed, yet me you are robbing—the whole nation!
10“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of hosts, “whether I will not open for you the windows of the heavens and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need.
11“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that it will not ruin the fruit of the ground for you, and the vine in the field will not fail to bear for you,” says Yahweh of hosts.
12“And all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says Yahweh of hosts.
13“Your words have been harsh against me,” says Yahweh. “But you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his charge and that we have walked in mourning before Yahweh of hosts?
15So now we call the arrogant blessed. Indeed, the doers of wickedness are built up; indeed, they test God and escape.’”
16Then those who feared Yahweh spoke with one another, and Yahweh gave heed and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before him for those who fear Yahweh and who esteem his name.
17“And they will be mine,” says Yahweh of hosts, “on the day when I act, a treasured possession; and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
18Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.
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