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[1]Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall speedily come to his temple: even the messenger of the covenant whom ye desire: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
[2]But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall endure, when he appeareth? For he is like a purging fire, and like fuller's soap.
[3]And he shall sit down to try and fine the silver: he shall even fine the sons of Levi and purify them as gold and silver, that they may bring offerings unto the Lord in righteousness.
[4]Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be acceptable unto the Lord, as in old time and in the years afore.
[5]And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the soothsayers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that wrongfully keep back the hireling's wages, and vex the widow, and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
[6]For I am the Lord: I change not, and ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
[7]From the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them: return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts: but ye said, Wherein shall we return?
[8]Will a man spoil his gods? Yet have ye spoiled me: but ye say, Wherein have we spoiled thee? In tithes, and offerings.
[9]Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have spoiled me, even this whole nation.
[10]Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven unto you, and pour you out a blessing without measure.
[11]And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine be barren in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
[12]And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a pleasant land, saith the Lord of hosts.
[13]Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord: yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?
[14]Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his commandment, and that we walked humbly before the Lord of hosts?
[15]Therefore we count the proud blessed: even they that work wickedness, are set up, and they that tempt God, yea, they are delivered.
[16]Then spake they that feared the Lord, everyone to his neighbor, 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.
[17]And they shall be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day that I shall do this, for a flock, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
[18]Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.
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