Malachi 3

⁵Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,

²As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.”

³“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

²⁶What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

²⁷This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way before You.’

¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way before You.’

¹¹Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

⁹This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

⁴when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

¹³his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

⁷To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.

¹⁷For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

³⁶So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

²⁵I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.

³A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

⁹This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.

¹⁰Many will be purified, made spotless, and refined, but the wicked will continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand.

²⁶to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

²⁷and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

²The priests were unable to enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled it.

⁷I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

³This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”

²⁶For seven days the priests are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; so they shall consecrate it.

²⁷At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Lord God.’”

¹⁸This is what the Lord says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.

¹⁹Thanksgiving will proceed from them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased; I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.

⁴⁰For on My holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Lord God, there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land. There I will accept them and will require your offerings and choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices.

⁴¹When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. And I will show My holiness through you in the sight of the nations.

⁸You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

⁹Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

¹¹You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁹‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

²²Because of the loving devotion of the Lord we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

²³They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

²⁷“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

²⁹He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.

³So tell the people that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.’

²¹But as for Israel he says: “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

²⁰When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

⁹Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

²¹“Caesar’s,” they answered. So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

¹⁷Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they marveled at Him.

²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.

¹³You also say: ‘Oh, what a nuisance!’ And you turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord of Hosts. “You bring offerings that are stolen, lame, or sick! Should I accept these from your hands?” asks the Lord.

²⁵So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

²If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the Lord of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

¹⁴Then Haggai replied, “So it is with this people and this nation before Me, declares the Lord, and so it is with every work of their hands; whatever they offer there is defiled.

¹⁵Now consider carefully from this day forward: Before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord,

⁶You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

⁷This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.

²⁰Was not Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath upon the whole congregation of Israel? Yet it was not only Achan who perished because of his sin!’”

²⁸So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

⁷Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

³³But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

⁹Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

³Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

¹²The Lord will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.

³⁰Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

¹⁴then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

²²Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best.

¹²“For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance.

⁴What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

¹This is what the Lord God showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.

²And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

²⁰The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things.

⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

⁴No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride.

²³This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

⁴⁸For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.

⁹So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

⁷For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

¹⁷You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

⁷By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible.

⁴He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

¹⁴Who among all the gods of these nations that my fathers devoted to destruction has been able to deliver his people from my hand? How then can your God deliver you from my hand?

¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

³“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.

⁸They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

³For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

³by asking the priests of the house of the Lord of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

⁴Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, saying,

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

⁷Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

⁸Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹⁷You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents

⁶“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

⁷Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle—are they not in Your book?

¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.

²“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

⁴Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

³You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

⁴“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the Lord, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

¹⁸And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

³You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the palm of your God.

⁴No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

³²He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

⁴⁶And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

²⁵Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?

¹⁵So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

²³For just last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me