| Chapter
3 |
1 | Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of
hosts.
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2 | But who may
abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is
like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: |
3 | And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. |
4 | Then shall the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former
years. |
5 | And I will come
near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn
aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of
hosts. |
6 | For I am the
LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. |
7 | Even from the days of your fathers
ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me,
and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall
we return? |
8 | Will a man
rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In
tithes and offerings. |
9 |
Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. |
10 | Bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it. |
11 | And I
will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the
field, saith the LORD of hosts. |
12 | And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. |
13 | Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? |
14 | Ye have said, It is vain to serve God:
and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked
mournfully before the LORD of hosts? |
15 | And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness
are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. |
16 | Then they that feared the LORD spake
often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that
thought upon his name. |
17 |
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up
my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth
him. |
18 | Then shall ye
return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that serveth him not. |