1. Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant, whom ye desire: behold, he comes, said the Lord of the hosts.
2. But who may abide the time of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he shall be like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap:
3. And he shall sit to refine and to purify the silver: for 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 the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5. And I will come near unto you for 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 do not fear me, said the Lord of the hosts.
6. For I am the Lord, I have not changed; therefore, ye sons of Jacob have not been consumed.
7. Even from the days of your fathers, ye had departed from my ordinances and had never kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, said the Lord of the hosts. But ye said, In what shall we return?
8. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, In what have we robbed thee? In the tithes and the offerings.