1. Behold, I am sending My messenger, and He will clear the way before Me. And the Lord whom you are seeking shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Angel of the Covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He comes, says Jehovah of Hosts.
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 fuller's soap.
3. And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold and like silver, that they may be presenters of a grain offering in righteousness to Jehovah.
4. Then the grain offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5. And I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing to a lie; and against those who extort from the hired laborer's pay; and turning away the widow, and the fatherless, and the alien, and not fearing Me, says Jehovah of Hosts.
6. For I, Jehovah, change not. Because of this, you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.
7. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of Hosts. But you say, In what shall we return?
8. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, In what have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering!
9. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the nation, all of it.
10. Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. And test Me now with this, says Jehovah of Hosts, whether I will not open the windows of the heavens for you and pour out a blessing until there is no sufficiency of room to store it.
11. And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground against you; nor shall your vine miscarry against you in the field, says Jehovah of Hosts.
12. And all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says Jehovah of Hosts.
13. Your words have been strong against Me, says Jehovah. Yet you say, What have we spoken against you?
14. You have said, It is vanity to serve God. And, What profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked as mourners before Jehovah of Hosts?
15. And now we are calling the arrogant blessed. Not only are the doers of wickedness built up, they also test God, and escape.
16. Then those fearing Jehovah spoke together, each man to his neighbor. And Jehovah gave attention and heard. And a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Jehovah, and for those esteeming His name.
17. And they shall be Mine, says Jehovah of Hosts, for the day that I will make up My treasure. And I will pity them as a man has pity on his son who serves him.
18. Then you shall again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.