¹ Behold, I am sending my messenger^[a]
    to prepare the way before me.
And suddenly the Lord whom you seek
    will come to the temple,
as well as the messenger of the covenant
    in whom you delight.
Indeed he is coming,
    says the Lord of hosts.
² But who will be able to endure
    the day of his coming,
    and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire
    or like a fuller’s soap.
³ He will sit refining and purifying;
    he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold or silver
    so that they may in righteousness
    offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
⁴ Thus the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem
    will be pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old,
    as in the years long past.
⁵ Then I will draw near to you for judgment,
    and I will be swift to bear witness
against the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers,
    against those who defraud the hired laborer of his wages,
against those who wrong widows and orphans,
    against those who thrust aside the foreigner,
and against those who do not fear me,
    says the Lord of hosts.

⁶ For I, the Lord, do not change,
    and you have not ceased to be sons of Jacob.
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 hosts.
Yet you ask,
    “How can we return?”
⁸ Can a man rob God?
    Yet you are robbing me.
You ask, “How do we rob you?”
    In your tithes and offerings.
⁹ There is a curse on you all,
    for your entire nation has defrauded me.
¹⁰ Bring the tithes in full into the treasury
    so that there may be food in my house.
Put me thus to the test,
    says the Lord of hosts,
and see if I will not open
    the windows of heaven for you
and pour down blessings upon you
    without measure.
¹¹ For your sake I will forbid the locusts
    to destroy the produce of your soil,
and the vines in your fields will not be barren,
    says the Lord of hosts.
¹² Then all nations will call you blessed,
    for yours will be a land of delight,
    says the Lord of hosts.

^13 [c]You have spoken harsh words against me,
    says the Lord.
Yet you ask,
    “What have we said against you?”
¹⁴ You have said,
    “It is useless to serve God.
What do we profit by keeping his commands
    or by going about in penitential garb
    before the Lord of hosts?
¹⁵ For our part,
    we regard the arrogant as happy.
Evildoers not only prosper,
    but when they put God to the test,
    they come to no harm.”
¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord
    spoke with one another.
The Lord listened attentively,
    and a book of remembrance was written before him
of those who feared him
    and trusted in his name.
¹⁷ They shall be mine,
    says the Lord of hosts,
my own special possession
    on the day when I act,
and I will have compassion on them
    as a father has compassion
    on the son who serves him.
¹⁸ Then you will once again see the difference
    between the just and the wicked,
between the one who serves God
    and the one who refuses to serve him.
¹⁹ For look, the day that is coming
    will blaze like a furnace,
and all the proud and all the evildoers
    will be stubble.
And the day that is coming
    will set them ablaze,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
    says the Lord of hosts.
²⁰ But for you who fear my name
    the sun of justice will arise
    with its healing rays.
You will emerge leaping
    like calves released from the stall
²¹     and tread down the wicked.
They will be ashes
    under the soles of your feet
on the day when I act,
    says the Lord of hosts.

²² Remember the law of Moses my servant,
    which I enjoined upon him at Horeb,
the statutes and ordinances
    for all Israel.
²³ Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah
    before the day of the Lord comes,
    that great and terrible day.
²⁴ He will reconcile parents to their children
    and children to their parents,
so that I will not come
    and strike the land with a curse.