3:1 Look, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you+ seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you+ desire, look, he comes, says Yahweh of hosts.
3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
3:3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they will offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
3:4 Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to Yahweh, as in the days of old, and as in ancient 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 the false swearers, and against those who unjustly reduce the wages of the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless, and who turn aside the sojourner [from his right], and do not fear me, says Yahweh of hosts.
3:6 For I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you+, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
3:7 From the days of your+ fathers you+ have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you+, says Yahweh of hosts. But you+ say, In what shall we return?
3:8 Will man rob God? Yet you+ rob me. But you+ say, In what have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
3:9 You+ are cursed with the curse; for you+ rob me, even this whole nation.
3:10 Bring+ the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, says Yahweh of hosts, if I will not open for you+ the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing for you+, that there will not be room enough [to receive it].
3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your+ sakes, and he will not destroy the fruits of your+ ground; neither will your+ vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, says Yahweh of hosts.
3:12 And all nations will call you+ happy; for you+ will be a delightsome land, says Yahweh of hosts.
3:13 Your+ words have been stout against me, says Yahweh. Yet you+ say, What have we spoken against you?
3:14 You+ have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of hosts?
3:15 And now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they make trial of God, and escape.
3:16 Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who thought on his name.
3:17 And they will be mine, says Yahweh of hosts, [even] my own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
3:18 Then you+ will return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve him.