Chapter 3
1 " Behold , I send my messenger , and he will prepare the way before me ! The Lord , whom you seek , will suddenly come to his temple . Behold , the messenger of the covenant , whom you desire , is coming !" says Yahweh of Armies .
2 " But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears ? For he is like a refiner ’s fire, and like launderers’ 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 Yahweh offerings in righteousness .
4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years .
5 I will come near to you to judgment . I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers , against the adulterers , against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages , the widow, and the fatherless , and who deprive the foreigner of justice , and don’t fear me ," says Yahweh of Armies .
6 " For I , Yahweh , don’t change ; therefore you , sons of Jacob , are not consumed .
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them . Return to me , and I will return to you ," says Yahweh of Armies . " But you say , ‘ How shall we return ?’
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me ! But you say, ‘ How have we robbed you ?’ In tithes and offerings .
9 You are cursed with the curse ; for you rob me , even this 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 Armies , " if I will not open you the windows of heaven , and pour you out a blessing , that there will not be enough room for .
11 I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field ," says Yahweh of Armies .
12 " All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says Yahweh of Armies .
13 " Your words have been harsh against me ," says Yahweh . " Yet you say , ‘ What have we spoken against you ?’
14 You have said, ‘ It is vain to serve God ,’ and ‘ What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies ?
15 Now we call the proud happy; yes , those who work wickedness are built up ; yes , they tempt God, and escape .’
16 Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another ; and Yahweh listened and heard , and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared Yahweh and who honored his name .
17 They shall be mine," says Yahweh of Armies , " my own possession in the day that I make . I will spare them , as a man spares his own son who serves him .
18 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked , between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him .