1 See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear a path before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are looking for will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you long for; see, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
2 Who, though, can bear the day he comes, and who can stay standing when he appears? He will be like a smelter's fire, like the lye of those who wash clothes.
3 He will take his seat, refining and purifying silver; he will cleanse the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will be people who present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
4 And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as it did long ago, as in years gone by.
5 I will come near to you to judge, and I will be quick to testify against sorcerers and adulterers, against those who take false oaths, against those who cheat the laborer of his pay and exploit the widow and the orphan, and against those who push the foreigner aside and have no fear of me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I, the LORD, have not changed; and you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.
7 Ever since your fathers' days you have strayed from my statutes and not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the LORD of hosts. Yet you ask, "How are we to come back?"
8 Can a man defraud God? Yet you are defrauding me! And you ask, "How have we defrauded you?" In tithes and contributions.
9 You are under a curse, every one of you, the whole nation, because you are defrauding me.
10 Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse so there will be food in my house, and test me with this, says the LORD of hosts: see if I will not throw open the windows of heaven for you and pour out blessing on you until there is more than enough.
11 For your sake I will rebuke the devourer, and it will not ruin the produce of your soil, nor will the vine in your field drop its fruit, says the LORD of hosts.
12 All the nations will count you happy, for you will be a delightful land, says the LORD of hosts.
13 You have used hard words against me, says the LORD. Yet you ask, "What have we said against you among ourselves?"
14 You have said, "Serving God is pointless. What did we gain by doing what he required and going about in mourning before the LORD of hosts?
15 So now we count the arrogant happy; those who do wickedness not only thrive, they even test God and get away with it."
16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD took note and listened; a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence about those who fear the LORD and think highly of his name.
17 They will be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my own treasure on the day I act, and I will spare them as a father spares the son who serves him.
18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.