Parallel Bible results for "malachi 3"

Malachi 3

Hebrew Names Version HNV

1 "Behold, 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, behold, he comes!" says the LORD of hosts.

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 launderer's soap;

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 shall offer to the LORD offerings in righteousness.

4 Then the offering of Yehudah and Yerushalayim will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

5 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 perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don't fear me," says the LORD of Hosts.

6 "For I, the LORD, don't change; therefore you, sons of Ya`akov, are not consumed.

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 the LORD of Hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'

8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings.

9 You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.

11 I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field," says the LORD of Hosts.

12 "All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says the LORD of Hosts.

13 "Your words have been stout against me," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against you?'

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 the LORD of Hosts?

15 Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.'

16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared the LORD, and who honored his name.

17 They shall be mine," says the LORD of Hosts, "my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

18 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.

The Message Bible MSG

1 "Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple - yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

2 But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance? He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry.

3 He'll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness.

4 Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.

5 "Yes, I'm on my way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless - anyone and everyone who doesn't honor me." A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

6 "I am God - yes, I Am. I haven't changed. And because I haven't changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven't been destroyed.

7 You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven't done a thing I've told you. Return to me so I can return to you," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "You ask, 'But how do we return?'

8 "Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day. "You ask, 'How have we robbed you?' "The tithe and the offering - that's how!'

9 And now you're under a curse - the whole lot of you - because you're robbing me.

10 Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.

11 For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers." The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

12 "You'll be voted 'Happiest Nation.' You'll experience what it's like to be a country of grace." God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so. The Difference Between Serving God and Not Serving Him

13 God says, "You have spoken hard, rude words to me.

14 "When you said, 'It doesn't pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? When we did what he said and went around with long faces, serious about God-of-the-Angel-Armies, what difference did it make?

15 Those who take life into their own hands are the lucky ones. They break all the rules and get ahead anyway. They push God to the limit and get by with it.'"

16 Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God's presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God's name.

17 God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, "They're mine, all mine. They'll get special treatment when I go into action. I treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them.

18 Once more you'll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn't, between serving God and not serving him.