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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. |
| 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. |
