The Righteous and the Wicked

13 “Your words against me are harsh,”(A) says the Lord.

Yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?”

14 You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements(B) and walking mournfully(C) before the Lord of Armies? 15 So now we consider the arrogant(D) to be fortunate.(E) Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God(F) and escape.”(G)

16 At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance(H) was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name. 17 “They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies,(I) “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.(J) 18 So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

The Day of the Lord

“For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Armies, “not leaving them root or branches. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings,(K) and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.[a] You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Armies.

A Final Warning

“Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb(L) for all Israel. Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah(M) before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.(N) And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.(O) Otherwise, I will come and strike the land[b] with a curse.”

Footnotes

  1. 4:2 Or like stall-fed calves
  2. 4:6 Or earth

The Nature of the Son

Long ago God spoke(A) to our ancestors by the prophets(B) at different times and in different ways.(C) In these last days,(D) he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things(E) and made the universe[a](F) through him. The Son is the radiance[b] of God’s glory and the exact expression[c] of his nature,(G) sustaining all things by his powerful word.(H) After making purification for sins,[d] he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.[e](I) So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.(J)

The Son Superior to Angels

For to which of the angels did he ever say,

You are my Son;
today I have become your Father,[f][g]

or again,

I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son?[h](K)

Again, when he[i] brings his firstborn into the world,(L) he says,

And let all God’s angels worship him.[j](M)

And about the angels he says:

He makes his angels winds,[k]
and his servants[l] a fiery flame,[m](N)

but to[n] the Son:

Your throne, God,
is forever and ever,
and the scepter of your kingdom
is a scepter of justice.(O)
You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness;
this is why God, your God,
has anointed you
with the oil of joy(P)
beyond your companions.[o][p]

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Footnotes

  1. 1:2 Lit ages
  2. 1:3 Or reflection
  3. 1:3 Or representation, or copy, or reproduction
  4. 1:3 Other mss read for our sins by himself
  5. 1:3 Or he sat down on high at the right hand of the Majesty
  6. 1:5 Or have begotten you
  7. 1:5 Ps 2:7
  8. 1:5 2Sm 7:14; 1Ch 17:13
  9. 1:6 Or When he again
  10. 1:6 Dt 32:43 LXX; Ps 97:7
  11. 1:7 Or spirits
  12. 1:7 Or ministers
  13. 1:7 Ps 104:4
  14. 1:8 Or about
  15. 1:9 Or associates
  16. 1:8–9 Ps 45:6–7

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