3:1 “Behold, I am sending My ①messenger, and he will clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; ②and the ③messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of armies.
▷ ①Or angel ②Or that is, the ③Or angel
3:2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap.
3:3 And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD ①offerings in righteousness.
▷ ①Or grain offerings
3:4 Then the ①offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old, and as in former years.
▷ ①Or grain offering
3:5 “Then I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who ①oppress the wage earner in his wages or the widow or the ②orphan, and those who turn away the stranger from justice and do not ③fear Me,” says the LORD of armies.
▷ ①Or exploit ②Or fatherless ③Or revere
3:6 “For ①I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.
▷ ①Or I am the LORD; I do not
3:7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
3:8 “Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and ①offerings.
▷ ①Or contributions
3:9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the entire nation of you!
3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the LORD of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until ①it overflows.
▷ ①Or there is not room enough
3:11 Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor will the vine in the field prove fruitless to you,” says the LORD of armies.
3:12 “All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of armies.
3:13 “Your words have been ①arrogant against Me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’
▷ ①Lit strong
3:14 You have said, ‘It is pointless to serve God; and what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of armies?
3:15 So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also put God to the test and escape punishment.’ ”
3:16 Then those who ①feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who ②fear the LORD and esteem His name.
▷ ①Or revere(d) ②Or revere(d)
3:17 “And they will be Mine,” says the LORD of armies, “on the day that I ①prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.”
▷ ①Lit make
3:18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.