1Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall 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, behold, he comes, says Yehovah of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3and 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 shall offer to Yehovah offerings in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to Yehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. 5And I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who turn aside the sojourner from his right, and do not fear me, says Yehovah of hosts. 6For I, Yehovah, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 7From 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 Yehovah of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? 8Will a man rob God? yet you rob me. But you say, How have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. 9You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. 10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this, says Yehovah of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; nor shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, says Yehovah of hosts. 12And all nations shall call you happy; for you shall be a delightful land, says Yehovah of hosts. 13Your words have been harsh against me, says Yehovah. Yet you say, What have we spoken against you? 14You 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 Yehovah of hosts? 15and now we call the proud happy; indeed, those who work wickedness are built up; indeed, they test God, and escape. 16Then those who feared Yehovah spoke one with another; and Yehovah listened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who feared Yehovah, and who thought upon his name. 17And they shall be mine, says Yehovah 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. 18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve him.