1. Behold, I send my angel, and he will prepare the way before my face. And presently the Sovereign, whom you seek, and the angel of testimony, whom you desire, will arrive at his temple. Behold, he approaches, says the Lord of hosts.
2. And who will be able to consider the day of his advent, and who will stand firm in order to see him? For he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb.
3. And he will sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he will purge the sons of Levi, and he will gather them like gold and like silver, and they will offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice.
4. And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will please the Lord, just as in the days of past generations, and as in the ancient years.
5. And I will approach you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evil-doers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who cheat the hired hand in his wages, the widows and the orphans, and who oppress the traveler, and who have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts.
6. For I am the Lord, and I do not change. And you, the sons of Jacob, have not been consumed.
7. For, from the days of your fathers, you have withdrawn from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And you have said, "In what way, shall we return?"
8. If a man will afflict God, then you greatly afflict me. And you have said, "In what way, do we afflict you?" In tithes and in first-fruits.
9. And you have been cursed with privation, and you greatly afflict me, even your entire people.