1 "Look! I [am] going to send my messenger, and he will prepare [the] way {before me}. And the Lord whom you [are] seeking will come suddenly to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, [in] whom you [are] taking pleasure--look!--[he is] about to come," says Yahweh of hosts.
2 And who [can] endure the day of his coming? And who [is] the one who can stand {when he appears}? For he [is] like a refiner's fire, like launderers' alkali.
3 He will sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the children of Levi, and he will refine them like gold and like silver, and they will present to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
4 And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh, like [in the] days of old and like [in] former years.
5 "Then I will approach you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear {falsely}, and against the oppressors of [the] hired worker [with his] wages, [the] widow and [the] orphan, and {the abusers of} [the] alien, and [yet] do not fear me," says Yahweh of hosts.
6 "For I, Yahweh, have not changed, and you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.
7 From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my rules, and have not kept [them]! Return to me and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts, "but you say, 'How shall we return?'
8 Will a human [dare to] rob God? Yet you [are] robbing me! And you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In the tithes and the contributions!
9 You [are] being cursed with curse, for you [are] robbing me, the whole nation [of you]!
10 Bring the whole tithe to {the storehouse}, so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you {an overflowing blessing}.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you; it will not destroy the fruit of your soil; your vine in the field will not be unfruitful," says Yahweh of hosts.
12 "And all the nations will call you blessed, because you will be {a land in which one takes joy}," says Yahweh of hosts.
13 "Your words have been harsh against me," says Yahweh. "But you say, 'How have we spoken together against you?'
14 You have said, '[It is] useless to serve God! What [is the] gain if we keep his requirements, and if we walk as mourners {before} Yahweh of hosts?
15 And now we [are] calling [the] arrogant blessed! Not only do those who do wickedness prosper; they also test God and they escape!'"
16 Then those who revered Yahweh spoke {with one another}. And Yahweh listened attentively and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written {before him} of those who revere Yahweh and ponder his name.
17 "They will be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I [am] acting, [my] treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
18 You will return and see [the difference] between [the] righteous and [the] wicked, between [the one who] serves God and the one who does not serve him.