CHAPTER 3

1  Behold, I send forth My messenger, and he shall survey the way before Me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come into His temple, even the angel of the covenant, whom you take pleasure in: behold, He is coming, says the Lord Almighty.

2  And who will abide the day of his coming? Or who will withstand at His appearing? For He is coming in as the fire of a furnace and as the herb of fullers.

3  He shall sit to melt and purify as it were silver, and as it were gold: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.

4  And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord, according to the former days, and according to the former years.

5  And I will draw near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the witches, and against the adulteresses, and against them that swear falsely by My name, and against them that keep back the hireling’s wages, and them that oppress the widow, and afflict orphans, and that wrest the judgment of the stranger, and do not fear Me, says the Lord Almighty.

6  For I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed:

7  but you, the sons of Jacob, have not refrained from the iniquities of your fathers: you have perverted My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you said, In what way shall we return?

8  Will a man insult God? For you insult Me. But you say, How have we insulted You? In that the tithes and first fruits are with you still.

9  And you do surely look off from Me, and you insult Me.

10  The year is completed, and you have brought all the produce into the storehouses; but there shall be the plunder thereof in its house: return now on this behalf, says the Lord Almighty, see if I will not open to you the torrents of heaven, and pour out My blessing upon you, until you are satisfied.

11  And I will appoint food for you, and I will not destroy the fruit of your land; and your vine in the field shall not fail, says the Lord Almighty.

12  And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty.

13  You have spoken grievous words against Me, says the Lord. Yet you said, In what way have we spoken against You?

14  You said, He that serves God labors in vain: and what have we gained in that we have kept His ordinances, and in that we have walked as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty?

15  And now we pronounce strangers blessed; and all they who act unlawfully are built up; and they have resisted God, and yet have been delivered.

16  Thus they spoke, those that feared the Lord, every one to his neighbor: and the Lord gave heed, and listened, and He wrote a book of remembrance before him for them that feared the Lord and reverenced His name.

17  And they shall be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day which I appoint for a peculiar possession; and I will make choice of them, as a man makes choice of his son that serves him.

18  Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, and between him that serves God, and him that serves him not.