An Oracle From the Lord About the Messiah

3 Look! I am sending my messenger!^[a] He will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord, whom you are seeking, will come to his temple! The Messenger of the Covenant,^[b] in whom you delight, will surely come, says the Lord of Armies.

² But who can endure the day when he comes? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, like launderers bleach!^{[c] 3} He will be seated like a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver. They will belong to the Lord and bring him an offering in righteousness.

⁴ Judah and Jerusalem’s offerings will be pleasing to the Lord as they were in the days of old, in years long ago.

⁵ I will approach you to judge you. I will be quick to give testimony against those who practice occult arts, those who commit adultery, those who swear false oaths, those who cheat workers out of their wages, those who wrong a widow and a fatherless child, those who turn away a resident alien—all those who do not fear me, says the Lord of Armies.

⁶ Certainly I, the Lord, do not change. That is why you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. ⁷ Since the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies.

You say, “In what way should we return?”

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene— ² during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. ³ He went into the whole region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ Just as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: