"And now, go ahead and implore God by saying, "Be gracious to us.' Will he receive you favorably and accept offerings like that from your hand?" asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

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.

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.

And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh, like [in the] days of old and like [in] former years.

You have said, 'It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all?

And in the day that I will make, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, they shall be mine own possession: and I will favour them, like as a man favoureth his own son, that doth him service.

"For look! The day [is] about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every {evildoer} will be stubble. The coming day will consume them," says Yahweh of hosts. "It will not leave behind for them root or branch.

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like {fattened calves}.

Ye shall tread down the ungodly: for they shall be like the ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall make, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.