1 1Behold, I send forth my messenger, and he shall survey the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into his temple, even the angel of the covenant, whom ye take pleasure in: behold, he is coming, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 And who will 2abide 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 3fullers. 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 4refine them as gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 And the sacrifice of Juda 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 sift 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 5afflict orphans, and that wrest the judgment of the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord Almighty. 6 For I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed: 7 but ye, the sons of Jacob, have not refrained from the iniquities of your fathers: ye have perverted my statutes, and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the Lord Almighty. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 8 Will a man insult God? for ye insult me. But ye say, Wherein have we insulted thee? In that the tithes and first-fruits are with you still. 9 And ye do surely look off from me, and ye insult me.
10 The year is completed, and ye have brought all the produce into the storehouses; but there shall be the plunder thereof in its house: return now on this behalf, saith the Lord Almighty, see if I will not open to you the 6torrents of heaven, and pour out my blessing upon you, until ye are satisfied. 11 And I will 7appoint food for you, and I will not destroy the fruit of your land; and your vine in the field shall not fail, saith the Lord Almighty.
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13 Ye have spoken grievous words against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye said, Wherein have we spoken against thee? 14 Ye said, He that serves God 8labours 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 spoke they that feared the Lord, every one to his neighbour: and the Lord gave heed, and hearkened, and he wrote a book of remembrance before him for them that feared the Lord and reverenced his name. 17 And they shall be 9mine, saith 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 ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, and between him that serves God, and him that serves him not.
1
2 Or, wait for.
3 Gr. them that wash.
4 Gr. pour.
5 Gr. beat with the fist.
6 Or, windows, see
7 Or, give a charge for you to be fed. Alex. τὴν βρῶσιν.
8 Gr. is vain.
9 Gr. for me.
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