Malachi 3:13-24
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Need to Serve God
13 Your words are too much for me, says the Lord.
You ask, “What have we spoken against you?”
14 (A)You have said, “It is useless to serve God;
what do we gain by observing God’s requirements,
And by going about as mourners[a]
before the Lord of hosts?
15 But we call the arrogant blessed;
for evildoers not only prosper
but even test God and escape.”
16 (B)Then those who fear the Lord spoke with one another,
and the Lord listened attentively;
A record book[b] was written before him
of those who fear the Lord and esteem his name.
17 (C)They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts,
my own special possession, on the day when I take action.
And I will have compassion on them,
as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
18 Then you will again distinguish
between the just and the wicked,
Between the person who serves God,
and the one who does not.
19 (D)For the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the Lord of hosts.
20 (E)But for you who fear my name, the sun of justice
will arise with healing in its wings;[c]
And you will go out leaping like calves from the stall
21 and tread down the wicked;
They will become dust under the soles of your feet,
on the day when I take action, says the Lord of hosts.
Moses and Elijah
22 (F)Remember the law of Moses my servant,
whom I charged at Horeb
With statutes and ordinances
for all Israel.
23 (G)Now I am sending to you
Elijah[d] the prophet,
Before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and terrible day;
24 He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons,
and the heart of sons to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike
the land with utter destruction.
Footnotes
- 3:14 As mourners: the adverb translated “as mourners” means something like “with a long face.”
- 3:16 Record book: see note on Ex 32:32.
- 3:20 Wings: a common symbol of the manifestation of a god in the ancient Near East is the winged sun disk found, for example, on premonarchic jar handles. Cf. Nm 6:25; Ps 4:7; 31:17; 34:6; 84:12.
- 3:23 Elijah: taken up in a whirlwind, according to 2 Kgs 2:11. Here his return seems to be foretold. A Jewish tradition interpreted this literally; the gospels saw Elijah in the person of John the Baptist (Mt 11:13–14; 17:10–13; Mk 9:9–13).
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.