1
"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the waybefore Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenlycome to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.
3
"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 LORDofferings in righteousness.
5
"Then I will drawnear to you for judgment; and I will be a swiftwitness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swearfalsely, and against those who oppress the wageearner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turnaside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.
7
"From the days of your fathers you have turnedaside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'
10
"Bring the wholetithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessinguntil it overflows*.
11
"Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the fieldcast its grapes," says the LORD of hosts.
14
"You have said, 'It is vain to serveGod; and whatprofit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourningbefore* the LORD of hosts?
16
Then those who feared the LORDspoke to oneanother, and the LORDgaveattention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was writtenbefore Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name.
17
"They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a manspares his own son who serves him."