Dual Panel1I am about to send my messenger to clear a path before me. Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is here, here already, says the LORD of Hosts.
2Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand firm when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire, like a fuller's soap;
3he will take his seat, testing and purifying; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver, and so they will be fit to bring offerings to the LORD.
4Thus the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as they were in former days, in years long past.
5I shall appear before you in court, quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who cheat the hired labourer of his wages, who wrong the widow and the fatherless, who thrust the alien aside and do not fear me, says the LORD of Hosts.
6I, the LORD, do not change, and you have not ceased to be children of Jacob.
7Ever since the days of your forefathers you have been wayward and have not kept my laws. If you return to me, I shall turn back to you, says the LORD of Hosts. You ask, “How can we return?”
8Can a human being defraud God? Yet you defraud me. You ask, “How have we defrauded you?” Why, over tithes and contributions.
9There is a curse on you all, your entire nation, because you defraud me.
10Bring the whole tithe into the treasury; let there be food in my house. Put me to the proof, says the LORD of Hosts, and see if I do not open windows in the sky and pour a blessing on you as long as there is need.
11I shall forbid pests to destroy the produce of your soil, and your vines will not shed their fruit, says the LORD of Hosts.
12All nations will count you happy, for yours will be a favoured land, says the LORD of Hosts.
The righteous triumphant
13YOU HAVE used hard words about me, says the LORD. Yet you ask, “How have we spoken against you?”
14You have said, “To serve God is futile. What do we gain from the LORD of Hosts by observing his rules and behaving with humble submission?
15We for our part count the arrogant happy; it is evildoers who prosper; they have put God to the proof and come to no harm.”
16Then those who feared the LORD talked together, and the LORD paid heed and listened. A record was written before him of those who feared him and had respect for his name.
17They will be mine, says the LORD of Hosts, my own possession against the day that I appoint, and I shall spare them as a man spares the son who serves him.
18Once more you will tell the good from the wicked, the servant of God from the person who does not serve him.