5 I will come near to you to judgement. 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 the LORD of Armies.
6 “For I, the LORD, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From 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 the LORD of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says the LORD 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. 11 I 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 the LORD of Armies. 12 “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Armies.
13 “Your words have been harsh against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ 14 You 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 the LORD of Armies? 15 Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the LORD and who honoured his name. 17 They shall be mine,” says the LORD 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. 18 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
4
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 the LORD of Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But 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. 3 You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says the LORD of Armies.
4 “Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He 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.”
† 1:1: When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).
‡ 1:9: The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
§ 1:13: “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
† 1:14: The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”
† 2:3: or, seed
Tobit
Tobit is recognised as Deuterocanonical Scripture by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox Churches.
1
1 The book of the words of Tobit, the son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asiel, of the tribe of Naphtali; 2 who in the days of Enemessar† king of the Assyrians was carried away captive out of Thisbe, which is on the right hand of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee above Asher.
3 I, Tobit walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life, and I did many alms deeds to my kindred and my nation, who went with me into the land of the Assyrians, to Nineveh. 4 When I was in my own country, in the land of Israel, while I was yet young, all the tribe of Naphtali my father fell away from the house of Jerusalem, which was chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that all the tribes should sacrifice there, and the temple of the habitation of the Most High was hallowed and built therein for all ages. 5 All the tribes which fell away together sacrificed to the heifer Baal, and so did the house of Naphtali my father. 6 I alone went often to Jerusalem at the feasts, as it has been ordained to all Israel by an everlasting decree, having the first fruits and the tenths of my increase, and that which was first shorn; and I gave them at the altar to the priests the sons of Aaron. 7 I gave a tenth part of all my increase to the sons of Levi, who ministered at Jerusalem. A second tenth part I sold away, and went, and spent it each year at Jerusalem. 8 A third tenth I gave to them to whom it was appropriate, as Deborah my father’s mother had commanded me, because I was left an orphan by my father. 9 When I became a man, I took as wife Anna of the seed of our own family. With her, I became the father of Tobias. 10 When I was carried away captive to Nineveh, all my kindred and my relatives ate of the bread of the Gentiles; 11 but I kept myself from eating, 12 because I remembered God with all my soul. 13 So the Most High gave me grace and favour‡ in the sight of Enemessar, and I was his purchasing agent. 14 And I went into Media, and left ten talents of silver in trust with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias, at Rages of Media.
15 And when Enemessar was dead, Sennacherib his son reigned in his place. In his time, the highways were troubled,§ and I could no longer go into Media. 16 In the days of Enemessar, I did many alms deeds to my kindred: I gave my bread to the hungry, 17 and my garments to the naked. If I saw any of my race dead, and thrown out on† the wall of Ninevah, I buried him. 18 If Sennacherib the king killed any, when he came fleeing from Judea, I buried them privately; for in his wrath he killed many; and the bodies were sought for by the king, and were not found. 19 But one of the Ninevites went and showed to the king concerning me, how I buried them, and hid myself; and when I knew that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear. 20 And all my goods were forcibly taken away, and there was nothing left to me, save my wife Anna and my son Tobias. 21 No more than fifty five days passed before two of his sons killed him, and they fled into the mountains of Ararat. And Sarchedonus‡ his son reigned in his place; and he appointed Achiacharus my brother Anael’s son over all the accounts of his kingdom, and over all his affairs. 22 Achiacharus requested me, and I came to Nineveh. Now Achiacharus was cupbearer, keeper of the signet, steward, and overseer of the accounts. Sarchedonus appointed him next to himself, but he was my brother’s son.
2
1 Now when I had come home again, and my wife Anna was restored to me, and my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared for me, and I sat down to eat. 2 I saw abundance of meat, and I said to my son, “Go and bring whatever poor man you find of our kindred, who is mindful of the Lord. Behold, I wait for you.”
3 Then he came, and said, “Father, one of our race is strangled, and has been cast out in the marketplace.” 4 Before I had tasted anything, I sprang up, and took him up into a chamber until the sun had set. 5 Then I returned, washed myself, ate my bread in heaviness, 6 and remembered the prophecy of Amos, as he said,
*“Your feasts will be turned into mourning,
and all your mirth into lamentation.
7 So I wept: and when the sun had set, I went and dug a grave, and buried him. 8 My neighbours mocked me, and said, “He is no longer afraid to be put to death for this matter; and yet he fled away. Behold, he buries the dead again.” 9 The same night I returned from burying him, and slept by the
