Malachi 3

Behold, I Send My Messenger Before My Face

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I Am Sending Out My Messenger

3:1“Look, I am sending out My messenger, and he will look to a way before My face. Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to His own sanctuary, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Look, he is coming,” says the Lord Almighty.

3:2And who will endure the day of his entrance? Or who will stand at his appearance? For he enters like a smelting fire and like launderers’ herb.

3:3He will sit, smelting and purifying as with silver and gold. He will cleanse the sons of Levi and melt them like gold and silver, and they will be those who bring a sacrifice to the Lord in righteousness.

3:4And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in the days of old and as in the former years.

I Will Draw Near to You in Judgment

3:5“I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorceresses, adulteresses and those who swear falsely by My name, against those who withhold a hired worker’s wages, those who oppress a widow, those who strike orphans with their fists, those who turn aside the judgment of a sojourner, and those who do not fear Me,” says the Lord Almighty.

3:6“For I am the Lord your God, and I have not changed. But you, sons of Jacob, do not refrain

3:7from the injustices of your fathers. You have turned aside from My ordinances and have not guarded them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. And you said, “How shall we return?”

Will a Human Defraud God?

3:8“Will a human defraud God? Yet you are defrauding Me.” And you will say, “How have we defrauded You?” “Because the tithes and the firstfruits are with you.

3:9And you keep looking away, yet you are defrauding Me. The nation has been brought to an end.

3:10And you brought all the produce dues into the storehouses, and his plunder will be in his house. Examine, then, by this,” says the Lord Almighty, “whether I will not open heaven’s floodgates for you and pour out My blessing for you until there is enough.

3:11And I will give you instructions for food, and I will certainly not destroy the fruit of your land, and your vine in the field will certainly not grow weak,” says the Lord Almighty.

3:12“All the nations will call you blessed, because you will be a desirable land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Your Words Have Been Heavy Against Me

3:13“You have made your words heavy against Me,” says the Lord. And you said, “How have we spoken against You?”

3:14You said, “The one who serves God is futile. What advantage is there because we guarded His observances and because we walked as supplicants before the Lord Almighty?

3:15And now we call outsiders blessed. All who practice lawlessness are being built up; they opposed God and were saved.”

3:16Those who feared the Lord spoke these things, each to his neighbor. The Lord paid attention and listened, and He wrote a book of remembrance before Him for those who feared the Lord and revered His name.

3:17“They will be Mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “for a day that I am making for an acquisition, and I will choose them as a man chooses his son who serves him.

3:18And you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the lawless, and between one who serves God and one who does not serve.

The Day Is Coming, Burning Like an Oven

3:19For look, the day of the Lord is coming, burning like an oven, and it will burn them. All the foreigners and all who practice lawlessness will be straw, and the coming day will ignite them,” says the Lord Almighty, “and neither root nor branch will remain from them.

3:20But for you who fear My name, a sun of righteousness will rise, and healing in its wings; you will go out and leap like little calves released from bonds.

3:21You will trample the lawless, because they will be ashes beneath your feet on the day that I am making,” says the Lord Almighty.

I Am Sending You Elijah the Tishbite

3:22“And look, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the coming of the Lord’s great and manifest day,

3:23who will restore a father’s heart toward a son and a person’s heart toward his neighbor, lest I come and strike the land utterly.”

3:24“Remember the law of Moses My servant, just as I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, ordinances and judgments.”

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.