| 1 | Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. |
| 2 | But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he {is} like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: |
| 3 | And he shall sit {as} a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. |
| 4 | Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former 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 false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in {his} wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger {from his right}, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. |
| 6 | For I {am} the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. |
| 7 | Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept {them}. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? |
| 8 | Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. |
| 9 | Ye {are} cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, {even} this whole nation. |
| 10 | Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that {there shall} not {be room} enough {to receive it}. |
| 11 | And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. |
| 12 | And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. |
| 13 | Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken {so much} against thee? |
| 14 | Ye have said, It {is} vain to serve God: and what profit {is it} that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? |
| 15 | And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, {they that} tempt God are even delivered. |
| 16 | Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard {it}, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. |
| 17 | And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. |
| 18 | Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. |