Malachi 3–4 · Matthew 1

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;

3and 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.

4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years.

5I 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.

7From 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?’

8Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.

9You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.

10Bring 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.

11I 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?’

14You 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?

15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

16Then 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.

17They 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.

18Then 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.

2But 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.

3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies.

4“Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.

6He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers.

3Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram.

4Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon.

5Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse.

6Jesse became the father of King David. David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife.

7Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa.

8Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah.

9Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah.

10Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah.

11Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel.

13Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor.

14Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud.

15Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob.

16Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.

18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

19Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.

20But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

21She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”

22Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,

23“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”

24Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;

25and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.