Malachi 3

“I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—look, he is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old and in ancient years. I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, those who swear falsely, those who defraud workers of their wages, those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and those who turn the foreigner aside and do not fear me,” says the LORD of hosts. “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, have not been consumed. Since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you ask, ‘How shall we return?’ Will a person rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse, yet you are robbing me—the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour out blessing for you beyond measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your ground, and your vine in the field will not lose its fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD of hosts. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of hosts. “Your words against me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his charge and walking in mourning before the LORD of hosts? Now we call the arrogant blessed. Those who do evil prosper; they even put God to the test and escape.’” Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the LORD and esteem his name. “They will be mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “my treasured possession on the day I act. I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

Rights and attribution