MalachiChapter 3

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¹"Look, I will send my messenger.
He will prepare the way before me.
Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his temple.
The Messenger of the covenant, the one you delight in, is coming.
Look, he is coming!" says the LORD of Hosts. ²But who can bear the day he comes?
Who can stand when he appears?
For he will be like a refiner's fire.
He will be like a launderer's strong soap. ³He will sit like a refiner who makes silver pure.
He will make the sons of Levi pure.
He will refine them like gold and silver.
Then they will bring offerings to the LORD in the right way. ⁴Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD,
as they did in days long ago, in years gone by. ⁵"Then I will come near to you to judge.
I will be quick to witness against sorcerers and adulterers.
I will witness against those who lie under oath.
I will witness against those who mistreat widows and orphans.
I will witness against those who cheat workers out of their pay.
I will witness against those who deny justice to the foreigner.
They do not fear me," says the LORD of Hosts. ⁶"I, the LORD, do not change.
That is why you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed. ⁷Ever since the days of your fathers, you have turned away from my laws.
You have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of Hosts.
"But you ask, 'How can we return?' ⁸Will a man rob God?
Yet you are robbing me!
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
You rob me in tithes and offerings. ⁹You are under a curse.
Yet you, the whole nation, are still robbing me. ¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,
so that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this," says the LORD of Hosts.
"See if I will not open the windows of heaven.
See if I will not pour out on you a blessing too great to measure.a ¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you,
so that it will not destroy the crops of your land.
And the vine in your field will not fail to bear fruit," says the LORD of Hosts. ¹²"Then all the nations will call you blessed.
For you will be a land of delight," says the LORD of Hosts. ¹³"Your words against me have been harsh," says the LORD.
"Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?' ¹⁴You have said, 'It is useless to serve God.
What did we gain by keeping his rules?
What did we gain by walking in sorrow before the LORD of Hosts? ¹⁵So now we call the proud blessed.
People who do evil not only do well.
They even test God and get away with it.'" ¹⁶Then those who feared the LORD talked with one another.
The LORD listened and heard them.
So a scroll of remembrance was written before him.
It was about those who feared the LORD and honored his name. ¹⁷"They will be mine," says the LORD of Hosts,
"on the day when I make ready my treasured possession.
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.
You will see the difference between those who serve God and those who do not."