3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the
way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, will suddenly come
to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye
delight in: behold, he will come, saith the LORD of hosts.
3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand
when he appeareth? for he [is] like a refiner's fire, and like
fuller's soap.
3:3 And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and
he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in
righteousness.
3:4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant
to the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the widow, and the
fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right],
and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed.
3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from my
ordinances, and have not kept [them]. Return to me, and I will
return to you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, In what
shall we return?
3:8 Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, In
what have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
3:9 Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even]
this whole nation.
3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there
may be food in my house, and prove me now with this, saith the
LORD 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 [to receive it].
3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall
not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine
cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of
hosts.
3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
3:13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet
ye say, What have we spoken [so much] against thee?
3:14 Ye have said, It [is] vain to serve God: and what profit
[is it] that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have
walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
3:15 And now we call the proud happy; yes, they that work
wickedness are set up; even [they that] tempt God are
delivered.
3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another:
and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the
LORD, and that thought upon his name.
3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him.
3:18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and
the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth
him not.
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