1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says the Lord of Hosts.
2 “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;
3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall 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 ancient years.
5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says the Lord of Hosts.
6 “For I, the Lord, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances, 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?’