The People Complain Harshly

13 “Your zwords have been 3harsh against Me,”

Says the Lord,

Yet you say,

‘What have we spoken against You?’

14 aYou have said,

‘It is useless to serve God;

What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,

And that we have walked as mourners

Before the Lord of hosts?

15 So now bwe call the proud blessed,

For those who do wickedness are 4raised up;

They even ctempt God and go free.’ ”

A Book of Remembrance

16 Then those dwho feared the Lord espoke to one another,

And the Lord listened and heard them;

So fa book of remembrance was written before Him

For those who fear the Lord

And who 5meditate on His name.

17 “They gshall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,

“On the day that I make them My hjewels. 6

And iI will spare them

As a man spares his own son who serves him.”

18 jThen you shall again discern

Between the righteous and the wicked,

Between one who serves God

And one who does not serve Him.