² But who can endure^(A) the day of his coming?^(B) Who can stand^(C) when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire^(D) or a launderer’s soap.^{(E) 3} He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;^(F) he will purify^(G) the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.^(H) Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,^{(I) 4} and the offerings^(J) of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.^(K)

⁵ “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers,^(L) adulterers^(M) and perjurers,^(N) against those who defraud laborers of their wages,^(O) who oppress the widows^(P) and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners^(Q) among you of justice, but do not fear^(R) me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

⁶ “I the Lord do not change.^(S) So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.^{(T) 7} Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away^(U) from my decrees and have not kept them. Return^(V) to me, and I will return to you,”^(W) says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask,^(X) ‘How are we to return?’

⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob^(Y) God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes^(Z) and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse^(AA)—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe^(AB) into the storehouse,^(AC) 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^(AD) of heaven and pour out^(AE) so much blessing^(AF) that there will not be room enough to store it.^(AG)