Malachi 3
Open in the reader1“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
2But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
3And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Joined and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to He-Who-Is in righteousness.
4Then the offerings of Praised and Foundation-of-Peace will please He-Who-Is, as in days of old and years gone by.
5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
6“Because I, He-Who-Is, do not change, you descendants of Heel-Grabber have not been destroyed.
7Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says He-Who-Is 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?’ In tithes and offerings.
9You are cursed with 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 He-Who-Is of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.
11I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
12“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
13“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says He-Who-Is. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’
14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before He-Who-Is of Hosts?
15So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”
16At that time those who feared He-Who-Is spoke with one another, and He-Who-Is listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared He-Who-Is and honored His name.
17“They will be Mine,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
18So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
19“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
20“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
21Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
22“Remember the teaching of My servant Drawn-Out, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Strives-with-God at Desolate.
23Behold, I will send you My-God-Is-He-Who-Is the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of He-Who-Is.
24And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”