Malachi 2:17-3:5
New Catholic Bible
God Will Come and Do Justice
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
By asserting, “All who do evil
are good in the eyes of the Lord;
indeed, he delights in them.”
Or by asking,
“Where is the God of justice?”
Chapter 3
1 Behold, I am sending my messenger[a]
to prepare the way before me.
And suddenly the Lord whom you seek
will come to the temple,
as well as the messenger of the covenant
in whom you delight.
Indeed he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts.
2 But who will be able to endure
the day of his coming,
and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire
or like a fuller’s soap.
3 He will sit refining and purifying;
he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold or silver
so that they may in righteousness
offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
4 Thus the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem
will be pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old,
as in the years long past.
5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment,
and I will be swift to bear witness
against the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers,
against those who defraud the hired laborer of his wages,
against those who wrong widows and orphans,
against those who thrust aside the foreigner,
and against those who do not fear me,
says the Lord of hosts.
Footnotes
- Malachi 3:1 The mysterious messenger of whom this verse speaks was probably a figure familiar to those who, at this period, attempted to imagine the final times: according to a passage added later (vv. 23-24), the reference was to Elijah, whose return was expected among the Jews. Jesus will apply the text to John the Baptist (see Mt 11:10; Mk 1:1; Lk 1:17). The messenger of the covenant is God himself; in Mt 11:10, it is Christ.
