1 "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before
me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and
the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!" says
Yahweh 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 launderer's
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; and I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and 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 Hosts. 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 aside from my ordinances, and have not kept
them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says Yahweh of Hosts. "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 store-house, that there may
be food in my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh 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 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 Hosts.
12 "All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful
land," says Yahweh of Hosts.
13 "Your words have been stout 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 kept his charge, and that
we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Hosts? 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 Hosts, "my own possession in the day that I make, and 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.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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