This book presents a prophetic narrative that gives a graphic picture of the closing of one period of history and showing the necessity of reforms necessary before the coming of the Messiah.

1:2   I have loved you, said the Lord. Yet you say, Wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? said the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,

1:10   Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, said the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

2:16   The Lord ... hates divorce+ ... therefore take heed ... so that you do not deal treacherously.

3:1   Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, said the Lord of hosts.

3:2   Who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

3:3   He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.

3:4   Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

3:5   I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and do not fear me, said the Lord of hosts.

3:6   I am the Lord. I do not change ...

3:10   Bring all the tithes into the storehouse ... and prove me now, says the Lord of hosts. I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so that there will not be enough room to receive it.

4:5   Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

4:6   He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.