13 “Your words have been harshr against me,” says Yahweh. “But you say, ‘How have we spoken together against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is uselesss to serve God! What is the gain if we keept his requirements, and if we walk as mourners ⌊before⌋u Yahweh of hosts? 15 And now we are calling the arrogant blessed! Not only do those who do wickedness prosper; they also test God and they escape!’ ”

A Book of Remembrance is Written

16 Then those who reveredv Yahweh spoke ⌊with one another⌋.w And Yahweh listened attentivelyx and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written ⌊before him⌋y of those who reverez Yahweh and ponder his name. 17 “They will be mine,” says Yahweh of hosts, “on the day that I am acting, my treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. 18 You will return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.

4 a “For look! The day is about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every ⌊evildoer⌋b will be stubble. The coming day will consumec them,” says Yahweh of hosts. “It will not leave behind for them root or branch. 2 But for you who revered my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like ⌊fattened calves⌋.e 3 You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am going to act,” says Yahweh of hosts.

4 “Remember the instructionf of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations. 5 Look! I am going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh! 6 And he will bring backg the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with a ban.”