Malachi 3:18

3:18 Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between ¹  the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ²  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ³ 

Malachi 3:17

3:17 “They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ⁴  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

¹ tn Heb “you will see between.” Cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT “see the difference.”

² tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

³ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

³ sn The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah, “special property”) is a technical term referring to all the recipients of God’s redemptive grace, especially Israel (Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). The Lord says here that he will not forget even one individual in the day of judgment and reward.