Malachi 3

¹ Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

² Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali.

³ He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to Yahweh as it should be made.

⁴ The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by Yahweh as in former days, as in the years of old.

⁵ I mean to visit you for the judgement and I am going to be a ready witness against sorcerer, adulterer and perjurer, against those who oppress the wage-earner, the widow and the orphan, and who rob the settler of his rights-no need for you to be afraid of me, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

⁶ No; I, Yahweh, do not change; and you, sons of Jacob, you are not ruined yet!

⁷ Since the days of your ancestors you have evaded my statutes and not observed them. Return to me and I will return to you, says Yahweh Sabaoth. You ask, ‘How are we to return?

⁸ Can a man cheat God?’ Yet you are cheating me. You ask, ‘How are we cheating you?’ In the matter of tithes and dues.

⁹ The curse lies on you because you, yes you the whole nation, are cheating me.

¹⁰ Bring the full tithes and dues to the storehouse so that there may be food in my house, and then see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you and pour out blessing for you in abundance.

¹¹ For your sake I will lay a strict injunction on the locust not to destroy the fruits of your soil nor to make the vine in your fields barren, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹² All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delights, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹³ You say harsh things about me, says Yahweh. You ask, ‘What have we said against you?’

¹⁴ You say, ‘It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before Yahweh Sabaoth?

¹⁵ Now we have reached the point when we call the arrogant blessed; yes, they prosper, these evil-doers; they try God’s patience and yet go free.’

¹⁶ This is what those who fear Yahweh used to say to one another. But Yahweh took note and heard them: a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who fear him and take refuge in his name.

¹⁷ On the day which I am preparing, says Yahweh Sabaoth, they are going to be my own special possession. I will make allowances for them as a man makes allowances for the son who obeys him.

¹⁸ Then once again you will see the difference between an upright man and a wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.

¹⁹ For the day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The day that is coming is going to burn them up, says Yahweh Sabaoth, leaving them neither root nor stalk.

²⁰ But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays; you will leap like calves going out to pasture.

²¹ You will trample on the wicked, who will be like ashes under your feet on the day I am preparing, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

²² Remember the Law of my servant Moses to whom at Horeb I prescribed laws and customs for the whole of Israel.

²³ Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day.

²⁴ He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.