O Lord, your power is visible, but they do not see it. They will see how devoted your people are, and they will be put to shame. Your burning anger will destroy your enemies.
In this way the wrongdoings of the descendants of Jacob are covered up. This is the way they will turn from their sins— when they turn all the altar stones into powdered chalk and no poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah or incense altars are left standing.
You brought godless foreigners into my holy place. You dishonored my temple when you offered fat and blood to me. You rejected my promise so that you could do all your disgusting things.
“I’m going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way ahead of me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the promise will come. He is the one you want,” says the Lord of Armies.
“Take the Levites to be substitutes for all the firstborn Israelites and the animals of the Levites to be substitutes for their animals. The Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.
His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into a barn, but he will burn the husks in a fire that can never be put out.”