CHAPTER 3

                 ¹I am about to send My messenger,

                     and he shall clear the way before Me.

                 In a trice He shall enter His Temple,

                     the Master Whom you seek,

                 and the covenant’s messenger whom you desire,

                         look, he comes, said the LORD of Armies.

                 ²And who can bear the day of His coming

                     and who can stand when He appears?

                 For He is like the smelter’s fire

                     and like the launderers’ lye.

                 ³And the smelter shall sit and purify silver,

                     and purify the sons of Levi,

                 and refine them like gold and silver,

                     and they shall become grain offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

                 ⁴And the grain offering of Judah and Jerusalem

                     shall be sweet to the LORD

                         as in days of yore and in former years.

                 ⁵But I will approach you for judgment,

                     and I will be a swift witness

                 against sorcerers and against adulterers

                     and against those who swear falsely,

                 and against those who extort the hired man’s wages,

                     who wrong widow and orphan and sojourner

                 and do not fear Me,

                     said the LORD of Armies.

                 ⁶For I am the LORD, I have not changed,

                     and you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.

                 ⁷From your fathers’ days you swerved from My statutes

                     and you did not keep them.

                 Turn back to Me, that I may turn back to you,

                     said the LORD of Armies.

                         But you said, “How shall we turn back?”

                 ⁸Can a human cheat God?

                     For you are cheating Me.

                 And you said, “How did we cheat You?”

                     —in tithes and in donations.

                 ⁹Despite the curse with which you are cursed,

                     Me you cheat, the whole nation.

                 ¹⁰Bring the whole tithe

                     to the treasure house

                         that there be provision in My house.

                 and test Me, pray, in this,

                     said the LORD of Armies.

                 I will surely open for you

                     the casements of the heavens

                 and shower upon you

                     blessings without end.

                 ¹¹And I will rebuke for you the devourer,

                     and it shall not ruin for you the fruit of the soil,

                 nor shall the vine of the field lose its yield,

                     said the LORD of Armies.

                 ¹²And all the nations shall call you happy,

                     for you shall be a land desired,

                         said the LORD of Armies.

                 ¹³Your words against Me have been harsh,

                     said the LORD.

                         And you said, “How did we speak against You?”

                 ¹⁴You said, “It is for naught to serve God,

                     and what profit if we keep His watch

                         and if we walk downcast because of the LORD of Armies?

                 ¹⁵And now we see the arrogant happy,

                     evildoers actually flourish,

                         actually test God and escape.”

                 ¹⁶Then did the LORD-fearers speak together,

                     each man to his neighbor,

                         and the LORD hearkened and He heard,

                 and a book of remembrance was written before Him

                     for the LORD-fearers who value His name.

                 ¹⁷And they shall become for Me, said the LORD of Armies,

                     a treasure on the day that I prepare.

                 And I will have pity on them

                     as a man has pity

                         on his son who serves him.

                 ¹⁸And you shall turn back and see

                     between righteous and wicked,

                 between him who serves God

                     and him who does not serve Him.

                 ¹⁹For, look, the day is coming,

                     burning like a kiln,

                 when all the arrogant and all the evildoers shall be straw.

                     And the day that is coming shall set them ablaze,

                         said the LORD of Armies,

                             shall not leave them root or branch.

                 ²⁰But to you who fear My name shall dawn

                     a sun of righteousness with healing in its wings,

                 and you shall go forth and become plump

                     like stall-fed calves.

                 ²¹And you shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes

                     beneath the soles of your feet

                 on the day that I prepare,

                     said the LORD of Armies.

                 ²²Recall the teaching of Moses My servant

                     that I charged him on Horeb,

                         for all Israel, statutes and laws.

                 ²³Look, I am about to send to you

                     Elijah the prophet

                 before the coming of the day of the LORD,

                     great and fearsome.

                 ²⁴And he shall bring fathers’ hearts back to sons

                     and the sons’ hearts to their fathers—

                         lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction.