Malaquias 3

¹ Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And LORD, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he comes, says LORD of hosts.

² But who can abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap.

³ And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver. And they shall offer to LORD offerings in righteousness.

⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to LORD, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

⁵ And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the FALSE swearers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the f

⁶ For I, LORD, do not change. Therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

⁷ From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says LORD of hosts. But ye say, How shall we return?

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet ye rob me. But ye say, How have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

⁹ Ye are cursed with the curse, for ye rob me, even this whole nation.

¹⁰ Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now with this, says LORD of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be

¹¹ And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, nor shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, says LORD of hosts.

¹² And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightful land, says LORD of hosts.

¹³ Your words have been stout against me, says LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?

¹⁴ Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before LORD of hosts?

¹⁵ And now we call the proud happy. Yea, those who work wickedness are built up. Yea, they challenge God, and escape.

¹⁶ Then those who feared LORD spoke one with another, and LORD hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who feared LORD, and who thought upon his name.

¹⁷ And they shall be mine, says LORD of hosts, my own possession, in the day that I make. And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

¹⁸ Then ye shall return and discern between the righteous man and the wicked man, between him who serves God and him who does not serve him.