1: Behold, My sent messenger! He had faced a way to My Face and suddenly he traverses to his temple. The Lord of whom you are all seekers and a messenger of The Covenant in which you delight – traverser is He, says Yehoweh of Parliaments.
2: And who are endurers of the/time of a traversing day? And who are standers in His appearing?
For He is like a refiner’s fire and like a launderer’s soap.
3: And He had dwelt as a refiner and a certifying-purifier of silver. And He had purified the sons of Levi and He had extracted them as gold and silver. And they were to Yehoweh those who caused an offering to be brought near in righteousness.
4: And Judah (God-praise) and Jerusalem’s (Shooting-peace) offering had pleased Yehoweh as in olden days and ancient years.
5: And I had intimately-drawn near you for sentencing-judgement.
And I happened to be a making-haste witness against the sorcererers and against the adulterers and against the lie-swearers and against the defrauders of employee’s wage, widow and fatherless and one who causes to reach out against an immigrant / sojourner and had not feared Me said Yehoweh of Parliaments.
6: For I, Yehoweh, had not doubled/repeated/changed (shana – same word for revolve eg day or year cyclical idea).
And you sons of Jacob (crafty opportunist) were not finished-off.
7: From your father’s days, you had turned aside from My statute and had not guarded/watched over them.
Return to Me. And I return to You says Yehoweh of Parliaments.
And you say, for what do we return?
8: Does a man rob God?
But you are robbers of Me.
And you had said, for what had we robbed you?
The Tenths and the contributions.
9: You are accursed with a curse and I am a robber to you, all of the unbelieving nation.
10: Cause all of tbe tenths to traverse to/from the treasury house. And it happens: prey in My House. And had said Yehoweh of Parliaments,
“Test Me on this whether I open for you the/time of the windows of the skies/ heavens and cause blessing to empty out on to you till there is no more.
11: And I had rebuked the devourer for you and I had caused the fruit of the earth to not spoil for you and the vine not to be barren for you in the field”,
had said Yehoweh of Parliaments.
12: “And all the unbelieving nations had blessed you, for it happens to be to you a land of delight”,
had said Yehoweh of Parliaments.
Pause and think about that!
13: Yehoweh had said,
“Your word had been strong against me”.
And you had said,
“What had we spoken against You?”
14: You had said,
“To serve God is vain. And for what gory-gain had we kept watch on His watch and as if we had walked mournfully before Yehoweh of Parliaments’ Face.
15: And now, we: Presumptiously blessed ones. They had also been constructed to work evil-wickedness (rasha opp of tsadek vs ra’a troublesome difficulty) and they had even tested God and are being released”.
16: Then Yehoweh-fearers had spoken, each man with his friend/neighbour and cause to heed (kashav) Yehoweh.
And a book of remembrance is written before His Face for those Yehoweh-fearful and for those reckoning/ calculating (khashav) His Name.
17: And Yehoweh of Parliaments had said, “And they had been for Me on a day when I am making a covenanted-precious (s’gulla, Exod 19:5, Deut 7:6,14:2,26:18). And I had spared them as a man spares his son who serves him.
18: And you had returned and you had seen between righteousness and evil-wickedness, between serving God and who had not served Him.
Pause and think about that!
Prayer:
Thank You Yehoweh for sending Your Messenger. When He comes as Refiner’s Fire to sentence, may we be Your S’gulla, Your precious covenant treasure whom You spared. May we be listed in The Book of Remembrance and certified as those who fear God, those who praise You, who spoke truth, who did not defraud or do evil, who served You. Amen.
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