Previous     Next       Play // Stop Sound

          DASV: Malachi 3

1 "Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the
way before me. Then the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly
come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom
you long for will come," says the LORD of hosts.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who will be able
to stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and
like launderer's soap.
3 He will sit like a refiner and purifier of silver; and he
will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and
silver, until they will offer to the LORD offerings in
righteousness.
4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to
the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 Then I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick
to witness against the sorcerers, adulterers, and against those
who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the worker
of his wages, the widow, and orphan, and those who deprive
the resident foreigner of justice, and do not fear me,"
says the LORD of hosts.

6 "For I, the LORD, do not change. Therefore, O sons of Jacob,
you are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your forefathers you have turned away
from my statutes, and have not kept them. Return to me, and
I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say,
'How shall we return?'
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you claim, 'How have
we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with the curse; for you, the entire nation,
are robbing me.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may
be food in my house, and test me with it," says the LORD of
hosts, "and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for
you, and pour out on you such a blessing that there will not
be enough room to take it in.
11 Then I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he will
not destroy the produce of your ground; neither will your vine
drop its fruit before the harvest time in the field," says
the LORD of hosts.
12 "Then all nations will call you happy; for you will be a
delightful land," says the LORD of hosts.

13 "Your words have been critical against me," says the LORD.
"Yet you say, 'How have we spoken against you?'
14 You have said, 'It is useless to serve God. What benefit
has there been that we have kept his commands, and that we
have walked in penitential mourning before the LORD of hosts?
15 So now we count the arrogant happy. Those who work
wickedness prosper; yes, they test God and then escape.'"
16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to each other; and
the LORD took notice and listened, and a book of remembrance
was written before him, for those who feared the LORD, and
that thought about his name.
17 They will be mine," says the LORD of hosts, "my own special
possession, on the day when I act. I will spare them, as a
man spares his own son who serves him.
18 Then you will return and distinguish between the righteous
and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one
who does not serve him."
Previous     Next       Play // Stop Sound