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the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. ¹² Yahweh will cut off the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies.

¹³ “This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. ¹⁴ Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. ¹⁵ Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. ¹⁶ One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.

¹⁷ You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’

¹ “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says Yahweh of Armies. 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 Yahweh offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years.

⁵ I will come near to you to judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, 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 Yahweh of Armies.

⁶ “For I, Yahweh, 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 Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says Yahweh of Armies. ¹² “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says Yahweh of Armies.

¹³ “Your words have been harsh against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies? ¹⁵ Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

¹⁶ Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared Yahweh and who honored his name. ¹⁷ They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.

¹ “For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ² But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. ³ You shall tread down the wicked; for they will