He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

The offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in former times and years past.

“My covenant with him was designed to bring life and peace. I gave its statutes to him to fill him with awe, and he indeed revered me and stood in awe before me.

and rejected Esau. I turned Esau’s mountains into a deserted wasteland and gave his territory to the wild jackals.”

Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god!

He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.”

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

He taught what was true; sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin.

Then those who respected the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. A scroll was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

I am about to discipline your children and will spread offal on your faces, the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

“I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the immigrant and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your instruction.”

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored my commandments and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

Look, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

“But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings despicable.

Your eyes will see it, and then you will say, ‘May the Lord be magnified even beyond the border of Israel!’”

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall.

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey.

Can a person rob God? You indeed are robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions!