1 "I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.5 "So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?'8 "Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' "In tithes and offerings.9 You are under a curse —your whole nation —because you are robbing me.10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe," says the LORD Almighty.12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.13 "You have spoken arrogantly against me," says the LORD. "Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?'14 "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty?15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.'"16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.17 "On the day when I act," says the LORD Almighty, "they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

1 Ecce ego mittam angelum meum, et prparabit viam ante faciem meam : et statim veniet ad templum suum Dominator quem vos quritis, et angelus testamenti quem vos vultis. Ecce venit, dicit Dominus exercituum. 2 Et quis poterit cogitare diem adventus ejus, et quis stabit ad videndum eum ? ipse enim quasi ignis conflans, et quasi herba fullonum : 3 et sedebit conflans, et emundans argentum : et purgabit filios Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum et quasi argentum, et erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in justitia. 4 Et placebit Domino sacrificium Juda et Jerusalem, sicut dies sculi, et sicut anni antiqui. 5 Et accedam ad vos in judicio, et ero testis velox maleficis, et adulteris, et perjuris, et qui calumniantur mercedem mercenarii, viduas et pupillos, et opprimunt peregrinum, nec timuerunt me, dicit Dominus exercituum. 6 Ego enim Dominus, et non mutor : et vos filii Jacob, non estis consumpti. 7 A diebus enim patrum vestrorum recessistis a legitimis meis, et non custodistis : revertimini ad me, et revertar ad vos, dicit Dominus exercituum. Et dixistis : In quo revertemur ? 8 Si affliget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me ? Et dixistis : In quo configimus te ? In decimis et in primitiis. 9 Et in penuria vos maledicti estis, et me vos configitis gens tota. 10 Inferte omnem decimam in horreum, et sit cibus in domo mea : et probate me super hoc, dicit Dominus : si non aperuero vobis cataractas cli, et effudero vobis benedictionem usque ad abundantiam : 11 et increpabo pro vobis devorantem, et non corrumpet fructum terr vestr, nec erit sterilis vinea in agro, dicit Dominus exercituum. 12 Et beatos vos dicent omnes gentes : eritis enim vos terra desiderabilis, dicit Dominus exercituum. 13 Invaluerunt super me verba vestra, dicit Dominus. 14 Et dixistis : Quid locuti sumus contra te ? Dixistis : Vanus est qui servit Deo : et quod emolumentum quia custodivimus prcepta ejus, et quia ambulavimus tristes coram Domino exercituum ? 15 Ergo nunc beatos dicimus arrogantes : siquidem dificati sunt facientes impietatem, et tentaverunt Deum, et salvi facti sunt. 16 Tunc locuti sunt timentes Dominum, unusquisque cum proximo suo : et attendit Dominus, et audivit, et scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo timentibus Dominum, et cogitantibus nomen ejus. 17 Et erunt mihi, ait Dominus exercituum, in die qua ego facio, in peculium : et parcam eis, sicut parcit vir filio suo servienti sibi. 18 Et convertemini, et videbitis quid sit inter justum et impium, et inter servientem Deo et non servientem ei.